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11-05-2020, 05:01 AM( This post was last modified: 12-28-2020, 08:18 AM by DinoFan83 )
Tratayenia is an extinct genus of megaraptoran tyrannosauroid theropod known from remains found in Neuquen, Argentina. The type and only species, Tratayenia rosalesi, was described in March 2018, but was unearthed in 2006, with a preliminary report on the remains being published by Juan Porfiri in a 2008 abstract suggesting that it may have been a large basal tetanuran related to carcharodontosaurids. The holotype (MUCPv-1162) consists of a fragmentary but well-preserved skeleton with an articulated series of dorsal and sacral vertebrae, two partial dorsal ribs, much of the right ilium, and pubis and ischium fragments. Tratayenia was a large to gigantic theropod, with the juvenile or subadult holotype being estimated at 8 to 11 meters in length and 1.8 to 4.7 tonnes in weight based on comparison to more complete relatives, and a much larger specimen that may have belonged to the genus (MCF-PVPH 416) potentially indicating sizes of up to 13.6 meters and 8.9 tonnes. Like most other megaraptorans, Tratayenia probably had large arms and claws as well as a large amount of skeletal pneumaticity. Tratayenia is one of the geologically youngest megaraptorans yet found, and is also the largest-bodied carnivorous animal named from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation, reinforcing the hypothesis that megaraptorids were apex predators in southern South America from the Turonian through to at least the Santonian or early Campanian, following the extinction or decline of carcharodontosaurids. If this hypothesis holds, this could show that more primitive tyrannosauroids went on a similarly evolutionary path to their Laurasian cousins after carcharodontosaurids went extinct or severely declined in both Laurasia and Gondwana, taking over the niche of apex predators and reaching sizes that made them among the largest theropods yet found. Tratayenia lived in the Bajo de la Carpa Formation alongside many lizards and turtles, the snake species Dinilysia patagonica, many birds such as Patagopteryx deferrariisi, a diverse amount of crocodylomorphs and many dinosaurs such as the abelisaurid Viavenator exxoni and the alvarezsaurid Alvarezsaurus calvoi, the former of which it was likely to be dominant over.
