Abstract
Ornithomimid material from the Belly River Group (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada is described as sharing characters with Qiupalong henanensis from the Qiupa Formation of Henan Province, China. Derived characters and character combinations of the pubis and astragalocalcaneum were previously used to diagnose Q. henanensis and support the referral of this material to Qiupalong sp., representing the first known occurrences of Qiupalong outside of China. Qiupalong is the sixth ornithomimid taxon to be reported from the Dinosaur Park Formation and the first ornithomimid genus with a transcontinental distribution. The Alberta material represents the oldest known occurrences of Qiupalong, and a reconsideration of character evidence suggests that this genus is phylogenetically nested within other North American ornithomimids. A North American origin for Qiupalong and subsequent dispersal to Asia is proposed.
Highlights
Definitive records of Ornithomimidae have been described exclusively from Upper Cretaceous deposits of Asia and North America, and are best represented in the Western Interior of Canada and the United States, and the Gobi Desert region of Mongolia and northern China (Makovicky et al 2004)
It is unlikely that this character is strongly influenced by ontogeny, because the proportions of the pubic boot are relatively conservative in the ontogenetic series of Gallimimus bullatus (Osmolska et al 1972, pl. 46 and 50; Xu et al 2011, fig. 8), and CMN 8902 is similar in size to other larger ornithomimid specimens from the Belly River Group (Russell 1972)
We examined isolated ornithomimid unguals from the Dinosaur Park Formation in the collections of the AMNH, CMN, ROM, TMP, and UALVP, and found at least one candidate, UALVP 52861, similar in morphology to Q. henanensis (HGM 41HIII-0106)
Summary
Definitive records of Ornithomimidae have been described exclusively from Upper Cretaceous deposits of Asia and North America, and are best represented in the Western Interior of Canada and the United States, and the Gobi Desert region of Mongolia and northern China (Makovicky et al 2004). Xu et al (2011, 214) diagnosed Q. henanensis as an “ornithomimid theropod dinosaur with unique features (a notch on the lateral surface of the medial [sic] posterior process of the proximal end of tibia and a small pit is present at the contact between astragalus and calcaneum) as well as a combination of primitive (short anterior extension of pubic boot) and derived features (arctometatarsal condition, straight pubic shaft, and wide angle between pubic shaft and boot)”. Material collected from Campanian Belly River Group strata in Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada) allows for the first identification of the characters used to diagnose Qiupalong in ornithomimid material from North America This material includes a partial postcranial skeleton (CMN 8902) with the diagnostic character combination of a distally straight pubic shaft and a short anterior extension of the pubic boot, and an isolated astragalocalcaneum (UALVP 53595) with the autapomorphic condition of a pit between the astragalus and calcaneum. The ventral surface is flat distally, with a greatly reduced flexor fossa and flexor tubercle proximally (Fig. 3E)
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