Triassic Art - Luciano Vidal Paleoarte

1º - Seminário de Pesquisa do Laboratório de Paleontologia e Evolução/Curso de Geologia/UFG - 2015
Large theropods on middle cretaceous from north Africa;

Great trophic niche overlap between carcharodontosauridae,

abelisauridae and spinosauridae

Luciano da Silva Vidal; Paulo Victor Luiz Gomes da Costa Pereira; Marcos Vinicios Divino de Lima;  Carlos Roberto dos Anjos Candeiro

INTRODUÇÃO

North Africa has one of the best records of Carcharodontosauridae (Fig. 1) and these species show diet and paleogeographic distribution similar to other top predator theropods such as Abelisauridae and Spinosauridae (1). These theropods were almost always the largest predators in Gondwanan ecosystems during Cretaceous Period, putting them at the apex of the food resources (2).The present study aims to conduct a brief analysis of the evolution and the predatory competition of the North African species of Carcharodontosauridae.

RESULTADOS E DISCUSSÕES

Carcharodontosaurids are recorded from the Aptian to the Cenomanian, with a time interval of at least 32 million years and their occurrence of is restricted to Gondwana as a result of the initial fragmentation of Pangea. On the Middle Cretaceous of North Africa, this family coexisted with other groups of theropods as ceratosaurians (Abelisauridae) and basal tetanurans (Spinosauridae, Neovenatoridae). Many fossil records indicate that the diet of these theropods was based especially on fish, sauropods, and even other theropods. Therefore, considering their diets, we can infer that there was a great trophic niche overlap between Carcharodontosauridae, Abelisauridae, and Spinosauridae, which apparently did not cause evolutionary disadvantages to these families during Middle Cretaceous of North Africa. Both Carcharodontosauridae and Abelisauridae had a generalist diet, while Spinosauridae had a more specialized diet and was once the only taxon among the large theropods of this region to feed on fish.

Figura 1. Figure 1. Large Carcharodontosaurus reconstruction from Middle Cretaceous North Africa (by Luciano Vidal/2015)

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CONCLUSÕES

The Cretaceous of North Africa had unique ecosystems that allowed these large predators to use similar food resources. Thus, although the Spinosauridae competed for similar food resources, fish consumption was advantageous to this family.

AGRADECIMENTOS

We want to thank all advisor that enabled this work.

REFERÊNCIAS

[1] Candeiro, C.R.A. Middle Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages from northern Brazil and northern Africa and their implication for northern Gondwanan composition. Journal of South American Earth Science. 61: 147-153, 2015.

2 Novas, F. E., Agnolin, F.L.; Ezcurra, M.D.; Porfiri, J. I.. Evolution of the carnivorous dinosaur during the Cretaceous: the evidence from Patagonia. Cretaceous Research. Londres, 45: 174-215, 2013.