Overoraptor

Not to be confused with Oviraptor.

Overoraptor Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	Paraves
Genus:	†Overoraptor Motta et al., 2020
Type species
†Overoraptor chimentoi Motta et al., 2020

Overoraptor (meaning "piebald thief") is a genus of paravian theropod dinosaurs, which was closely related to Rahonavis, from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Huincul Formation of Gondwana, present-day Argentina. It includes one species, Overoraptor chimentoi.

Etymology

The generic name Overoraptor is derived from the Spanish overo, meaning piebald, in reference to the color of the fossil bones. The specific name, O. chimentoi, refers to Roberto Nicolás Chimento, who discovered the remains.

Description and classification

Although the holotype is very fragmentary, it exhibits an unusual combination of features that reveal a novel phylogenetic position. The forelimb exhibits a bird-like morphology that includes, among other things, a robust ulna, while the hindlimb appears to have been adapted for a cursorial lifestyle. A "sickle-claw" similar to that of dromaeosaurs is also present. Both a flight-adapted forelimb and a cursorial hindlimb are present in Rahonavis, also from Gondwana, and the describers suggest the two are closely related taxa.

The describers ran a phylogenetic analysis and recovered a novel position for Overoraptor and Rahonavis, being outside of Unenlagiidae and Avialae, to which the latter has sometimes been assigned to. Their cladogram is shown below, with clade names added by definition:

Eumaniraptora	Troodontidae Dromaeosauridae Microraptoria Unenlagiidae Austroraptor Buitreraptor Unenlagia Overoraptor Rahonavis Avialae Archaeopterygidae Alcmonavis Wellnhoferia Archaeopteryx Anchiornithidae Xiaotingia Anchiornis Jeholornis Pygostylia

Paleoenvironment

Overoraptor was found in the Huincul Formation, a geological unit that has been extensively studied in recent years. Overoraptor lived alongside theropods such as the noasaurid Huinculsaurus, abelisaurids like Skorpiovenator, Ilokelesia and Tralkasaurus, carcharodontosaurids like Mapusaurus and indeterminate theropods like Gualicho and Aoniraptor. Sauropods were represented by the rebbachisaurids Cathartesaura and Limaysaurus, the titanosaurs Argentinosaurus and Choconsaurus, and some unnamed species. Ornithischians were represented by unnamed iguanodonts.