#berthasaura

Exercise_Berthasaura.

Pencils & digital, 2024.

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ORNITHISCHIAN FINAL MATCHUP:

Changmiania vs Jakapil

SAUROPODOMORPH FINAL MATCHUP:

Kholumolumo vs Bajadasaurus

NON-NEORNITHINE THEROPOD FINAL MATCHUP:

Berthasaura vs Caihong

NEORNITHINE FINAL MATCHUP:

Vorombe vs Heracles

REBLOG! SHARE! DEBATE!

​Berthasaura is just *barely* losing @a-dinosaur-a-day​‘s DMM poll and if the only remaining Noasaur loses to a friggin Spinosaur I might actually riot

A vote for Berthasaura is a vote for all Noasaurs, arguably the weirdest collection of non-avian theropods to ever exist. A vote for Berthasaura is, by extension, a vote for:

- Masiakasaurus “why are your teeth like that“ knopfleri of Prehistoric Planet fame, a genuíne Madagascan weirdo

-  Vespersaurus “only dinosaur that walks on one toe” paranaensis (yes that includes all birds), tragic second place of the previous round

- Limusaurus “are you sure that’s even a theropod” inextricabilis, which started out like normal little baby theropods before losing their teeth and becoming quasi-ornithomimid beaked herbivores, and its fellow Elaphrosaurines

- Noasaurids are also the closest relatives of Abelisaurs, which should be worth extra brownie points

And Berthasaura itself was no slouch either! In addition to being arguably The Most Ornithopod of any theropod (vote for wacky convergent evolution!), it evolved its toothlessness independently of the Elaphrosaurines, and was toothless its entire life! Friggin Noasaurs don’t even do toothlesness the same way twice apparently. Berthasaura also holds the distinction of being the second ever toothless non-ceolosaurian theropod to be described, and it had a nearly complete skeleton! Berthasaura was an ornithomimid before ornithomimids became cool (or even existed), an early-cretaceous throwback to Shuvosaurids, the first of a long line of weirdo theropods. Peak dinosaur, 9/10.

Meanwhile Ceratosuchops is what, a Baryonychine with a horn on its head? Boo, unoriginal, 4/10. The horn ain’t even that big. It’s only known from some fragments of a skull (again: compare to Berthasaura’s remarkably complete skeleton) and in all honesty I’m just tired of Spinosaurs at this point. I couldn’t even keep track of whatever Spinosaurus drama was happening back when I was deep in my early Covid paleo hyperfixation and I'm kinda scared to check in on it. Apologies to Darren Naish, but I’ve had a petty grudge against spotlight-stealing Spinosaurs since like the third post-2014 Spinosaurus paper and it sure as hell-herons ain’t going away now. Sure, Ceratosuchops was a heron-analogue with a cool name, but it’s not even a proper heron mimic. If you want some real convergent evolution, vote for Berthasaura. 

Am I deliberately skimping on Baryonychine facts due to a petty grudge against the most famous member of the family? Yes definitely absolutely. They get enough attention as is. And what do they have that Noasaurs don’t? Weird teeth and an aquatic diet? See Masiakasaurus. Big fore-claws? See Noasaurus. Large size? Overrated, and Deltadromeus might be a Noasaur so they even have that covered. Sail-backs and a semiaquatic lifestyle? That’s Spinosaurus bias talking, vote for Bajadasaurus or Annakacygna instead. Spinosaurs may be fan-favorite weirdo dinosaurs, but I think that Noasaurs were objectively weirder and deserve to advance in the polls. Vote Berthasaura for a weirder, wackier theropod (and a way to unload that pent-up anti-Spinosaurus grudge, if you like)

A young berthasaura narrowly escapes the jaws of a predatory vespersaurus. Despite appearances, these two are actually quite closely related, both being part of the clade noasauridae. These were a group of ceratosaurid theropods that were quite varied in forms, among them small hunters and beaked herbivores that lost their teeth as they grew up.

New dinosaur: Berthasaura leopoldinae

There’s a new strange little dinosaur on the block!! Berthasaura is a Brazilian dinosaur species known from one skeleton so far, that represents a sub-adult individual that’s close to one metre in length, so while the adults were probably a bit bigger they would not have been that much larger! 

The naming of this species is rather lovely! Berthasaura is named for Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz, a Brazilian zoologist and women’s rights activist. The species name leopoldinae comes from both the first Brazilian Empress Maria Leopoldina in celebration of the upcoming Brazilian independence bicentenary next year, as well as from Imperatriz Leopoldinense, a samba school that wrote a theme for the National Museum of Brazil which tragically burned down last year.

Berthasaura is a ceratosaur, a group of theropods that include cool stuff like Ceratosaurus and abelisaurids, and also just this one group of incredibly weird messed up tiny guys called noasaurids that this new one belongs to. There are no normal noasaurids, they are all bizarre in special and different ways.

Berthsaura has lost all its teeth and evolved a beak. There is another beaked noasaurid called Limusaurus, but these two are actually not really closely related, so toothlessness probably evolved twice in this one group.

It also had absolutely tiny hands, something that seems to happen again and again for some reason in ceratosauria. I also can’t get over how muppety its head looks, it’s so funny.

(Select bones and schematic skeletal of Berthasaura leopoldinae, with preserved bones in white, from de Souza et al., 2021)

Meaning of name: Berthasaura = [Brazilian zoologist and politician who was a leading figure during the Pan American feminist movement] Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz’s lizard; leopoldinae = for Maria Leopoldina [the first Empress of Brazil] and Imperatriz Leopoldinense [a samba school that developed a theme to commemorate the National Museum of Brazil]

Age: Early Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian)

Where found: Goio Erê Formation, Paraná, Brazil

How much is known: Nearly complete skeleton of one individual.

Notes: Berthasaura was a small ceratosaurian theropod, less than a meter long in total body length. To be fair, the only known specimen was probably not fully grown. Based on comparison to other ceratosaurs with more completely known growth series, however, it was likely not an early juvenile individual either.

Whereas most other ceratosaurs were sharp-toothed predators, Berthasaura was extremely unusual in having toothless jaws, and it may have instead been an herbivore or an omnivore. The only other toothless ceratosaur named previously was Limusaurus from the Late Jurassic of China. Interestingly, the describers of Berthasaura found that it was probably not especially closely related to Limusaurus. If this is correct, ceratosaurs evolved into toothless forms at least two separate times in their evolutionary history.

Although Limusaurus was a toothless herbivore as an adult, it had sharp teeth as a juvenile. If Berthasaura also went through this process, it might have lost its teeth at an earlier growth stage than Limusaurus did, given the immaturity of the type specimen. However, it is also possible that it was toothless throughout its life. Without additional fossils of Berthasaura at other growth stages, it is hard to be sure.

(Type specimen of Berthasaura leopoldinae, from de Souza et al., 2021)

Hi there!

Berthasaura leopoldinae

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Bertha and Leopoldina’s reptile (in honour of naturalist and women’s rights activist Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz, and first Empress of Brazil and advocate for Brazilian independence Maria Leopoldina)

Time: Uncertain, likely ~121 to 75 million years ago (Aptian to Albian stages of the Early Creataceous) but may be younger

Location: Goio-Erê Formation, Brazil

Theropods are famously carnivorous dinosaurs, but many, many groups of theropods have decided “actually but what if I didn’t” and gone vegetarian, and yet it’s still wild when another one of those pops up every now and then. Even among them though, Berthasaura is special for being the only theropod that seems to have tried to just straight up turn itself into an ornithopod. The long spindly legs, the teeny little arms, and a big head with a toothless beak all come together to create an utterly bizarre little theropod that honestly nobody could have predicted.

Berthasaura is a noasaur, and those of you familiar will at this moment be saying “oh of course it’s a noasaur” because those guys were small ceratosaurs that were basically Theropod Wacky Experimental Phase 1.0. Within this group you’ve got wild sticky-outy teeth, a single weight-bearing toe on each foot in our fellow competitor Vespersaurus, and now multiple instances of beaks evolving independently. Theropods just love to evolve a beak, what can I say? Whatever the hell Berthasaura had going on, it must have been successful because as the basalmost noasaurid currently known its direct lineage has been surviving since at least the Late Jurassic!

Caihong juji

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Rainbow with big crest

Time: 161 million years old (Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic)

Location: Tiaojishan Formation, China

It’s always a special treat to hear the announcement of a dinosaur with known colours, because it gives the most direct impression of how truly stunning these animals would have been to witness in real life. And Caihong might just be the most spectacular of them all so far, described in 2018 from an immaculate full-body fossil that preserves detailed feathers! Caihong’s feathers are longer than some other floofy dinosaurs, and would have had the appearance of a luxurious mane along its neck. Not only that, the fossil preserves feather microstructures that in life would have made this dinosaur gloriously iridescent!

Now iridescent dinosaurs aren’t new, Microraptor has been decked out in fabulous starling-esque plumage for a while now, but Caihong absolutely takes it to the next level. Its whole body was covered in iridescent black, including the enormous tail, but the real star of the show are the platelet-like melanosomes found on the head, neck, and the base of the tail. Different from the usual iridescent melanosomes, the structure of these tiny organelles reflects brilliantly iridescent colours, like those on the heads of hummingbirds and particularly the bright purple feathers on the necks of the trumpeter family. Caihong would have put on an absolutely dazzling jewel-toned display in the treetops or on the forest floor of prehistoric China!