MEANING: Kiya River runner
PERIOD: Early Cretaceous
CONTINENT: Asia
Kiyacursor is a basal noasaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of what is now Russia. Noasauridae is a diverse group of theropods closely related to abelisauridae. Though noasaurids don't superficially resemble abelisaurids to any notable degree, they are known for having a wide range of unique adaptations. Kiyacursor is estimated to have had a body length of about 2.5 m, with leg proportions suggesting that it was likely capable of running at high speeds.
Abstract from paper: The noasaurid ceratosaur Kiyacursor longipes gen. et sp. nov. is described based on a fragmentary skeleton including cervical vertebra, pectoral girdle, humerus and hind limbs from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Ilek Formation at Shestakovo 1 locality in Western Siberia, Russia. This is the first ceratosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Asia, extending the stratigraphic range of Ceratosauria by 40 Myr on that continent. Kiyacursor shares unique hind limb proportions with Elaphrosaurus and Limusaurus, suggesting improved cursorial ability. These taxa show an ostrich-like specialization of the pes, with a large third metatarsal and greatly reduced second metatarsal. By contrast, all other fast running non-avian theropod dinosaurs have an arctometatarsalian pes, with the third metatarsal strongly reduced proximally. The new taxon lived in the Early Cretaceous ecosystem containing a number of other Jurassic relics, such as stem salamanders, protosuchian and shartegosuchid crocodyliforms, tritylodontid synapsids and docodontan mammaliaforms.
Kiyacursor is from the Cretaceous. The Cretaceous is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago. It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin creta, "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period.
The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct flora and fauna, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth by the end of the Cretaceous, coincident with the decline and extinction of previously widespread gymnosperm groups.
The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, died out. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg boundary), a geologic signature associated with the mass extinction that lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras.
Kiyacursor is a noasaurid. Noasauridae is a diverse group of theropods closely related to abelisauridae. Though noasaurids don't superficially resemble abelisaurids to any notable degree, they are known for having a wide range of unique adaptations. Masiakasaurus, for example, is known to have had a strange jaw that curves downward, resulting in its front teeth pointing nearly straight forward. On the other hand, Limusaurus, another well-known noasaur, had no as an adult teeth at all, but had a beak instead. The wide differences in this relatively small group, as well as fairly scant fossil remains, make noasaurs somewhat difficult do classify.