Neotheropoda

Evolutionary history

Neotheropoda (meaning "new theropods") is a clade that includes coelophysoids and more advanced theropoddinosaurs, and is the only group of theropods that survived the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. Neotheropoda was named by R.T. Bakker in 1986 as a group including the relatively derived theropod subgroups Ceratosauria and Tetanurae, and excluding coelophysoids. However, most later researchers have used it to denote a broader group. Neotheropoda was first defined as a clade by Paul Sereno in 1998 as Coelophysis plus modern birds, which includes almost all theropods except the most primitive species. Dilophosauridae was formerly considered a small clade within Neotheropoda, but was later considered to be paraphyletic. By the Early Jurassic, all non-averostran neotheropods had gone extinct.