Convergent evolution among non-carnivorous, desert-dwelling theropods as revealed by the dentary of the noasaurid Berthasaura leopoldinae (Cretaceous of Brazil)

The Cretaceous witnessed the establishment of many desertic landscapes across the globe, including the Early Cretaceous Caiuá palaeodesert, in south-central Brazil, and those of several Late Cretaceous deposits of the Gobi Desert. Although separated in time and space, their faunas share the presence of medium-sized, edentulous theropods (e.g. oviraptorids and Berthasaura leopoldinae) which depart from the typically carnivorous diet of the group. Here, we report a new dentary of the latter taxon, which bears alveolar vestiges, suggesting that its teeth were lost during ontogeny, as previously reported for another noasaurid, Limusaurus inextricabilis, from the Late Jurassic of China. In addition, we used geometric morphometrics to quantitatively analyse the shape of theropod jaw bones, revealing a significant morphological convergence signal for the dentary of Be. leopoldinae and oviraptorids, which are dorsoventrally deep, and bear a large mandibular fenestra. This pr..., , , # Data from: Convergent evolution among non-carnivorous, desert-dwelling theropods as revealed by the dentary of the noasaurid *Berthasaura leopoldinae* (Cretaceous of Brazil)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkzw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkzw)

Felipe Ferreira Pierossi1; Rafael Delcourt1*; Daniel de Melo Casali1; João Alberto Leme1; Neurides de Oliveira Martins2; Paulo Manzig2; Max Cardoso Langer1

 1 Laboratório de Paleontologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil.

2 Museu de Paleontologia de Cruzeiro do Oeste “Alexandre Gustavo Dobruski”, R. João Ormino de Rezende, 686, 87400-000 Cruzeiro do Oeste-PR, Brazil. 

\* Corresponding author: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

## Description of the data and file structure

#### File: Theropoda_time-scale.nex

**Description:** Nexus input file used to conduct th...,