An Acad Bras Cienc (2014) 86 (1) Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (2014) 86(1): (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences) Printed version ISSN 0001-3765 / Online version ISSN 1678-2690 www.scielo.br/aabc Note on the paleobiogeography of Compsognathidae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its paleoecological implications MARCOS A.F. SALES 1 , PAULO CASCON 2 and CESAR L. SCHULTZ 3 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigraia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Agronomia, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil 2 Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Av. Mister Hull, Pici, 60455-760 Fortaleza, CE, Brasil 3 Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigraia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Agronomia, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil Manuscript received on april 16, 2012; accepted for publication on June 4, 2013 ABSTRACT The paleobiogeography of the theropod clade Compsognathidae is here reaccessed in order to test the hypothesis of this taxon being adapted speciically to inhabit semi-arid environments. Data about localities where these fossils were collected and their paleoenvironments were gathered from the literature. Compsognathids seem to be found especially in sedimentary deposits known as Fossil Lagerstätten, which were formed under a set of speciic conditions that allowed the preservation of the fragile bone remains of these animals. This bias limits an accurate analysis of the historical and/or ecological paleobiogeography of this taxon. Actually, it is possible that compsognathids had an almost worldwide distribution during the Mesozoic Era. Their occurrence in Lower Cretaceous rocks of China suggests that they also inhabited environments with moist conditions instead of being restricted to semi-arid to arid environments. Key words: Compsognathidae, Fossil Lagerstätten, fossil record, paleobiogeography, paleoecology, Theropoda. Correspondence to: Marcos André Fontenele Sales E-mail: marcos.paleo@yahoo.com.br INTRODUCTION Compsognathidae is a group of small theropods that has been positioned among basal coelurosaurs in recent phylogenies (Holtz Jr 1998, Sereno 1999, Senter 2007). In recent years, compsognathids have taken an important role in discussions about the origin of feathers and their color patterns (xu 2006, zhang et al. 2006, 2010). However, few considerations on their paleoecology and paleobiogeography were made so far. One attempt is from Naish et al. (2004), who considered these theropods as “speciically adapted to inhabit semi- arid environments” once they were found in the Solnhofen Plattenkalk and Santana Formation. When Naish et al. (2004) proposed this scenario they recognized only four species as members of Compsognathidae: which were the Laurasian Compsognathus longipes, Aristosuchus pusillus, and Sinosauropteryx prima and the Gondwanan Mirischia asymmetrica. Therefore, it is necessary to review the distribution of this taxon and its paleoecological implications given that four other species described after Naish et al. (2004) are now also considered as compsognathids (Peyer 2006, Ji et al. 2007, dal Sasso and Maganuco 2011) and that they did not take into account the paleoenvironment http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0001-37652013100412 127-134