Daily Dinosaur #22 - Aerosteon, Air Bone

Today, January 22, 2018, is the twenty-second day of my Daily Dinosaur series, where I draw a scientifically accurate dinosaur and a human doing funny things. Today, I have chosen the megaraptoran theropod, Aerosteon riocoloradense.

Aerosteon was a megaraptoran, a strange group of theropod dinosaurs that had large claws on their hands, similar to the unrelated spinosaurids and noasaurids. Famous megaraptorans include Australovenator and Fukuiraptor.

Unlike most non-avian theropods, Aerosteon had pneumatized (air-filled) bones (hence its name, which means "air bone"). This feature is more commonly seen in birds, and rarely in non-avian dinosaurs, which is why scientists think Aerosteon breathed like a modern day bird.

The relationships of megaraptorans are still unknown. Originally believed to have been related to the dromaeosaurids and the spinosaurids, they are now thought to be either tyrannosaurids or neovenatorids. Scientists say the latter is more likely. Since neovenatorids are closely related to carcharodontosaurids, which have evidence of feathers (Concavenator) it is reasonable to assume that neovenatorids and megaraptorans were feathered (as shown here).

It was hard thinking of a pun for this creature, as air-filled bones are quite insignificant to illustrate. So I thought, "how will air fill bones?" Then I remembered the bone flutes that the Neanderthals used to play music. So here it is. An air-boned Aerosteon filling a bone with air, and making music out of it.

That's all for now folks. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

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This reconstruction is based on javifel's (Felipe Martinez's) skeletal.