What is Neotheropoda?

The least inclusive clade containing Coelophysis bauri and Passer domesticus (House Sparrow). Strictly speaking, Neotheropoda ("new theropods") is anything but new, as it encompasses all but a handful of the most archaic theropods. But it is the only group of theropods that made it through the Triassic extinction event into the shiny new Jurassic period where they could show off their new-fangled hands and feet.

Compared to the non-neotheropod theropods, all neotheropods lost the fifth finger entirely, while the fourth finger (at least) was shrunk to a vestigial nubbin. Their feet dropped functioning toes too, with shrinkage to digits 1 and 5 leaving bird-like three-toed feet.

Given those features, a gloriously apt name for this group of theropod dinosaurs — which includes coelophysoids, ceratosaurs, and every kind of tetanurine, including birds — would've been Greg Paul's "Avepoda" (bird feet). Unfortunately, he coined it six years too late and it was chalked off as a junior synonym of Neotheropoda, along with the Eutheropoda of Novas.

Click here to search Dinochecker for neotheropods. Neotheropoda is derived from the Greek "neos" (new), "ther" (wild beast) and "pod" (foot).