| Berthasaura | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reconstructed mounted skeleton | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | †Berthasauridae |
| Genus: | †Berthasaura de Souza et al.,2021 |
| Type species | |
| †Berthasaura leopoldinae de Souza et al., 2021 | |
Berthasaura (meaning "Bertha's lizard") is anextinct genus ofceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs from theEarly CretaceousGoio-Erê Formation ofParaná, Brazil. The genus contains asingle species,Berthasaura leopoldinae, known from a nearly complete skeleton.[1]
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Between 2011 and 2015, paleontologists working at the Cemitério dos Pterossauros site nearCruzeiro do Oeste discovered the skeletons of the pterosaursCaiuajara,Keresdrakon andTorukjara as well as remains of small theropods. One of these was in 2019 named and described asVespersaurus but a second species proved to be present.[1]
In 2021, thetype speciesBerthasaura leopoldinae was named and described by Geovane Alves de Souza, Marina Bento Soares, Luiz Carlos Weinschütz, Everton Wilner, Ricardo Tadeu Lopes, Olga Maria Oliveira de Araújo andAlexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner. The generic nameBerthasaura refers to the scientist andwomen's rights activistBertha Maria Júlia Lutz, while thespecific name honorsMaria Leopoldina, the first Empress of Brazil; the bicentennial ofBrazil's independence was in 2022, close to when the dinosaur was described. Indirectly this also refers to the Imperatriz Leopoldinensesamba school; for the 2018carnival, they developed the theme ofUma noite real noMuseu Nacional (Portuguese: A royal night in the National Museum); in September of that yeara catastrophic fire would destroy much of its collection.[1]
The holotype, MN 7821-V, is a nearly complete disarticulated skeleton excavated between 2011 and 2014 and is one of the most complete dinosaurs known from the Cretaceous Brazil, preserving the most completeaxial series of any noasaurid known to date. Its toothless, short beak suggests it was a herbivore or at least an omnivore, unlike most other ceratosaurs except for adultLimusaurus. Because the holotype represents an immature individual, it has been suggested thatBerthasaura was herbivorous throughout its entire life, unlikeLimusaurus.[1] However, a new dentary described in 2025 suggests that likeLimusaurus, it had teeth as a juvenile but lost them in adulthood. It also reveals several convergent adaptations withoviraptorids.[2]
It was probably less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) long.[1]
Berthasaura was placed by de Souza and colleagues as the basalmost noasaurid, distantly related toLimusaurus.[1]
In their 2024phylogenetic analysis, Hendrickx et al. recoveredBerthasaura in a clade also includingAustrocheirus andAfromimus (both of which have debated affinities within Theropoda), which they named Berthasauridae. They found berthasaurids to nest outside of the Noasauridae, as thesister taxon toabelisauroids. Their results are displayed in thecladogram below:[3]
Berthasaura lived in the Goio-Erê Formation, which was an ancient desert. Its dating is uncertain; de Souza and colleagues believe it was deposited during the Aptian-Albian, but other authors have discussed the controversial unresolved age.[4] Other animals recovered from this formation include the pterosaursCaiuajara,Keresdrakon andTorukjara, as well as the lizardGueragama.[5][4][6]
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