Zupaysauroides

Zupaysauroides
Zupaysauroides
Meaning: Like Zupaysaurus
Description: Kink-snouted, fast running theropod
Species: Z. agilis
Family: Ceratosauria, Noasauridae
Length: 12-14 feet
Lifestyle: Hunter
Range: South America

Distinguishing features: Resembling a coelophysoid dinosaur of a similar name, it is easy to see how this fast running predator was thought to be a late surviving relic of the Triassic. It is a rare animal, with a pampas grass green back covered in yellow spots with a muscle tone pink underbelly. The dinosaur also has a long slender head topped with a pair of pre-orbital crests that run the length of the snout and a mouth with long, blade-like teeth that are built to disembowel smaller animals. However the teeth are not its main weapons, it opens an attack by slashing with its overly large thumb claws. Adults live in small groups consisting of a patriarch, his harem of females and their young. Females lay between seven and nine eggs each in a single large communal nest. It is then the male's job to incubate the eggs while the females go off hunting. During this time he loses an eighth of his own body weight and does not leave the nest for a full month and a half. Chicks are born with fluffy down, which is later shed in their first month. The young are also remarkably precocious and can follow their parents on hunting trips immediately from birth though it is rare that they leave the nest before two weeks.

Habits and habitat: Zupaysauroides is mostly found on the jungle fringe and on the pampas grass plains, where its long legs give it an advantage over its slower moving prey. It mostly specializes in hunting small ornithopod dinosaurs such as Lagosaura, which it flushes from ambush. Other times, one animal will hold itself erect and walk straight towards its intended victim. It then pursues its target toward one of its waiting pack mates who then disembowel the victim was their razor-sharp claws by slashing at the stomach and throat. Despite this cooperative pack behavior their numbers continue to dwindle due to the competition of small tyrannosaurs and the fact that many packs of Zupaysauroides are highly inbred due to the fact that one pack rarely crosses into the home range of another. Because of this several packs and even populations are beginning to die out.


The first Noasaurid i created for Dinosaurs of the Present.