CLADISTIC BIOGEOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN DINOSAUR FAUNAS

The Mesozoic had a rich diversity of animals that included some of the largest megafauna in Earth’s history. Virtually all megafauna and much of the diversity of smaller terrestrial vertebrates from this era come from a single clade, the Dinosauria. The Mesozoic dinosaurs are one of the most heavily studied extinct organisms and persisted through a geologically dynamic part of Earth’s history, the breakup of Pangea. These three factors (rich diversity, substantial amount of research, geologically dynamic history) make dinosaurs a model organism for biogeographical studies of fossil organisms. Despite this, no study has attempted to discover areas of endemism for dinosaurs, the operational taxonomic unit for biogeographical studies. Presented here is the first study to assess the discovery of areas of endemism for dinosaurs focusing on the North American faunas. The history of these areas will also be assessed with cladistic biogeography and event based methods, analytical methods that are also rarely seen in dinosaur literature and rarer still at levels of endemicity lower than the continental level.