| Ypupiara Temporal range: Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
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| A restoration of 2 Ypupiara lopai | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Family: | Unenlagiidae |
| Subfamily: | Unenlagiinae |
| Genus: | †Ypupiara Brum et al., 2021 |
| Species: | †Y. lopai |
| Type species | |
| †Ypupiara lopai Brum et al., 2021 | |
Ypupiara lopai (meaning "the one who lives in the water") is an extinct genus of unenlagiine theropod dinosaur that lived in the Marília Formation of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now brazil. It was the first Dromaeosaurid to be discovered in South America. It is also the first member of the Unenlagiinae to be discovered, but not the first to be identified as such. The type and only species, Y. lopai, is known solely from a specimen that was destroyed in a fire in 2018.
Discovery and naming[]
The holotype, DGM 921-R, a right maxilla and dentary (which was associated with a fish jaw), was discovered in a layer of the Late Cretaceous Marília Formation of Brazil. It was found by Alberto Lopa sometime between 1940 and 1960, after which Llewellyn Ivor Price listed the fossil as belonging to an indeterminate vertebrate. The specimen was then placed in storage at the National Museum of Brazil and was not acknowledged again for another 80 years.
The photographs of the holotype were taken shortly after it was destroyed when the museum it was housed in was heavily damaged in a fire on 2 September 2018. The paper naming and describing the holotype was due to be submitted around the same time as the fire destroyed the fossil, but was delayed because of the fire. The generic name, Ypupiara, is derived from a Tupi word meaning "the one who lives in the water," in reference to a local mythological creature and its inferred diet of fish. The specific name, lopai, honors the holotype's discoverer. Around the time that the Ypupiara holotype was discovered, a single metatarsus belonging to a dromaeosaurid was found. This specimen, known as "Lopasaurus" (meaning "Alberto Lopa's lizard"), was lost sometime after the death of Llewellyn Ivor Price in 1980. It was acknowledged by Brum et al. (2021), where they tentatively referred "Lopasaurus" to the Unenlagiinae, but they could not determine whether "Lopasaurus" represents the same taxon as Ypupiara, due to the lack of overlapping material.
Description[]
Based on the size of the preserved fossil material, Ypupiara is estimated to have been around 2-3 meters (6.6-9.8 feet) long when fully grown.
Classification[]
For the 80 years before it was described, Ypupiara was classified as an indeterminate vertebrate.