Growth strategies of apex predators from the Late Triassic of South Africa.

This proposal seeks to understand the growth and anatomy of four new species of early-branching theropod dinosaurs from South Africa. We propose high-resolution scans of skull and limb bones of this new material, suitable for anatomical reconstruction and digital osteohistology. The resulting data will be used to test the position of these new species on the tree of theropod evolution and understand their growth strategies and physiology. These lines of enquiry will address a major palaeontological question, namely, why theropod dinosaurs became the apex predators of the late Mesozoic, replacing other incumbent carnivorous lineages after the end-Triassic mass extinction. The material examined here represents the first theropod species from the Triassic of southern Africa. The uniqueness of these specimens, the difficulty in obtaining segmentable CT images, and the high resolutions required for digital osteohistology, require use of non-destructive synchrotron microtomography.

这个提案旨在研究南非四种早期分化兽脚类恐龙新物种的生长模式与解剖结构。我们计划对这些新材料的头骨与肢骨进行高分辨率扫描，所得数据可用于解剖重建与数字骨组织学（digital osteohistology）研究。所得数据将用于验证这些新物种在兽脚类恐龙演化树上的位置，并探究其生长策略与生理特征。这些研究方向将聚焦于一个重要的古生物学（palaeontological）问题：为何兽脚类恐龙在三叠纪末大灭绝后取代了其他现存肉食类群，成为晚中生代的顶级掠食者？本研究涉及的材料代表了南非南部三叠纪时期首次发现的兽脚类恐龙物种。鉴于这些标本的独特性、获取可分割CT图像的难度，以及数字骨组织学对高分辨率的要求，需采用非破坏性同步辐射显微断层扫描（non-destructive synchrotron microtomography）技术。