a noasaurid abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Brasil.
Pronunciation:
Meaning: Western Cross Lizard
Author/s: Langer
et al. (
2019)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Paraná, Brazil
Discovery Chart Position: #1006
Vespersaurus paranaensis
(Western Cross Lizard from Parana)Etymology
Vespersaurus is derived from the Latin "vesper" (evening or evening star, but also west) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), in reference to the town of Cruzeiro do Oeste (Western Cross), where the
fossils were found.
The
species epithet,
paranaensis, means "from Paraná" in Latin.
Discovery
The remains of
Vespersaurus were discovered at Cemitério dos Pterossauros Quarry (Pterosaur Graveyard) in the Goio Êre Formation (initially interpreted as the Rio do Paraná Formation) of the Caiuá Group (Bauru Basin), in the overbanks of a secondary road about 2
km north of
Cruzeiro do Oeste, Northwestern Paraná State, Southern Brazil, by a team of palaeontologists from the Museu Nacional (UFRJ) and the CENPALEO (UnC) between 2011 and 2015. The remains were found mingled with many pterosaur fossils (
Caiuajara dobruskii and
Keresdrakon vilsoni) and a toothless theropod dinosaur that was later named
Berthasaura leopoldinae.
• Langer MC, de oliveira Martins N, Manzig PC, de souza Ferreira G, de Almeida Marsola JC, Fortes E, Lima R, Santána LCF,
da silva Vidal L, da silva Lorençato RH and Ezcurra MD (2019) "
A new desert-dwelling dinosaur (theropoda, Noasaurinae) from the Cretaceous of south Brazil".
Scientific Reports, 9(1): 9379. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45306-9.
• Leonardi, G (1994) "Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints (Devonian to Holocene) with an appendix on México and
Central America".
Ministerio de Minas e Energia - Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais, Geological Service of Brazil.
• Alexander RM (1976) "Estimates of speeds of dinosaurs".
Nature, 261: 129-130
• Leonardi G (1977) "Two new ichnofaunas (vertebrates and invertebrates) in the eolian cretaceous sandstone of the Caiuá Formation in
Northwest Paraná".
Atas do I Simpósio de Geologia Regional, São Paulo, 112-128 (Sociedade Brasileira de Geologia)
• Manzig PC, Kellner AWA, Weinschütz LC, Fragoso CE, Vega CS, Guimarães GB, Godoy LC,
Liccardo A, Ricetti JHZ and de Moura CC (2014) "Discovery of a rare pterosaur bone bed in a cretaceous desert with insights on ontogeny and behavior of flying reptiles".
PLoS ONE, 9(8): e100005. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100005.
• Kellner AWA, Weinschütz LC, Holgado B, Bantim RAM and Sayão JM (2019) "A new toothless pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea) from Southern Brazil with insights into the paleoecology of a Cretaceous desert".
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 91 (suppl.2). DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765201920190768.
• de Souza GA, Soares MB, Brum AS, Zucolotto M, Sayão JM, Weinschütz LC and Kellner AWA (2020) "Osteohistology and growth dynamics of the Brazilian noasaurid
Vespersaurus paranaensis Langer
et al., 2019 (Theropoda: Abelisauroidea)".
PeerJ, 8: e9771. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.9771.
• de Souza GA, Soares MB, Weinschütz LC, Wilner E, Lopes RT, de Araújo OM and Kellner AWA (2021) "The first edentulous ceratosaur from South America".
Scientific Reports, 11(1): 22281. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01312-4.
• Barbosa GG, Langer MC, Martins NdO and Montefeltro FC (2023) "Assessing the palaeobiology of
Vespersaurus paranaensis (Theropoda, Noasauridae), Cretaceous, Bauru Basin – Brazil, using Finite Element Analysis".
Cretaceous Research: 105594. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105594.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
VESPERSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/VESPERSAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
