Coelurosauria. Bonaparte and Powell assigned it to a family of its own, the Noasauridae. In 1988, Gregory S. Paul saw them as members of the Abelisauridae and coined a Noasaurinae within that group. He also incorrectly thought they were Megalosauria. Later, the noasaurids were recognised as close relatives of the larger abelisaurids; they are both derived from the same basal abelisauroid ancestor. The following cladogram is based on the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Rauhut and Carrano in 2016, showing the relationships of Elaphrosaurus among the noasaurids: Paleobiology In 1980, it was thought that the presumed foot claw functioned as a sickle claw. Paul in 1988 saw the noasaurines as the South-American counterparts of the Asian and North-American dromaeosaurids, in a process of convergent evolution. Noting that abelisaurids tend to have very short arms, he wondered whether the forelimbs of Noasaurus were of limited length also, forcing the animal to employ a kicking technique instead of grasping the back of a victim in order to disembowel it with the foot claws, a method he assumed the dromaeosaurids used. This hypothesis was undermined when it was determined that the foot claw was in fact a hand claw. In 2001, a more complete genus of noasaurid, Masiakasaurus was discovered. This genus had an unusual down-turned jaw and protruding front teeth which would have been well suited to grasping, and Masiakasaurus may have consumed small vertebrates, fish, or invertebrates. Noasaurus may have been similar in appearance and lifestyle. See also Timeline of ceratosaur research References Sources Abelisaurs Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of South America Fossil taxa described in 1980 Taxa named by José Bonaparte Taxa named by Jaime Powell Lecho Formation