Episode 79 is also about Abelisaurus, an apex predator from Argentina that may have hunted titanosaurs.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Abelisaurus
- Name means “Abel’s lizard”
- Abelisaurid theropod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Argentina
- Named after Roberto Abel, who found the type specimen, and was also the director of the Museum of Cipolletti in Argentina, where the specimen is kept
- Abel found the holotype in 1983; one fossil (partial skull with no lower jaws), but skull is estimated to be 33 inches (85 cm) long
- Named by Jose Bonaparte and Fernando Emilio Novas in 1985
- Type species is Abelisaurus comahuensis
- Species name is in honor of the Comahue region of Argentina, where the bones were found
- Paper Abelisaurus comahuensis, Carnosauria from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia by Jose Bonaparte and Fernando Novas, published in 1985
- Carnivore
- Grew up to 23-30 ft (7-9 m) long, based on one partial skull
- Gregory Paul estimated Abelisaurus to weigh 3 tons and be 33 ft (10 m) long (in 2010)
- Probably an apex predator. Gregory Paul said in 2010 Abelisaurus may have hunted titanosaurs
- Probably had short front limbs and long legs
- Abelisaurus helped scientists better understand theropods from the southern hemisphere
- Broad skull in the back, so Bonaparte and Novas compared it to Tyrannosauridae (had wide skulls), some differences though (not part of Tyrannosaur family)
- Think Abelisaurus looked like a smaller T-rex
- Abelisaurids have short heads
- Skull may have had a crest, based on rough ridges on the snout
- Had four small teeth in the premaxilla, and maxilla had 7-13 larger teeth
- High eye sockets, and large fenestrae in the skull above the jaw
- Holes in the skull make it lighter, which may have helped it balance its large skull (larger holes than in Tyrannosauridae)
- Created a new family, Abelisauridae
- Originally thought it was Carnosauria, but then other abelisaurids were found (Aucasaurus, Carnotaurus, Majungasaurus) that shows they were Neoceratosauria instead of carnosaurs)
- In 2009 Novas said Aucasaurus garridoi may be a junior synonym of Abelisaurus, but that hasn’t been accepted
- Abelisauridae means “Abel’s lizards” and is a family of theropods
- They lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous in Gondwana, and have been found in Africa, South America, India, and Madagascar (may have also lived in the Late Jurassic in Portugal)
- Carnivorous, with stocky hindlimbs, short but tall skulls, and crests on the skull
- Most were between 17-30 ft (5 to 9 m) long
- Only a few advanced abelisaurids have been found with complete skeletons, so it’s not clear exactly how they all looked (many are known from skull bones)
- Skull is similar to carcharodontosaurids, so the groups may have been related
- Fun Fact: From the Coursera course on theropod dinosaurs: “as many as 42 major avian groups had already split before the end of the Cretaceous.”
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