Abelisaurus

What it was like

Abelisaurus is known only from a single partial skull, so most of what can be said about it is inferred from close relatives. Like other abelisaurids, it was probably a bipedal carnivore with a short, deep skull, tiny arms, and rough, thickened bone on its face. Length estimates put it at around 9 meters (30 feet), but this is uncertain, since a skull alone cannot fix the size of the rest of the body with confidence.

Its world

Abelisaurus lived from about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the very end of the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. Its remains come from the Allen Formation.

It shared this world with other unusual predators such as the raptor Austroraptor, and with plant eaters including the titanosaur Aeolosaurus and the armored Patagopelta.

How it was found

Bonaparte named Abelisaurus in 1984, and it later gave its name to the whole family Abelisauridae. Close relatives such as Carnotaurus, Majungasaurus, and Rugops share its short, deep skull, and studying them has helped fill in details that the single skull of Abelisaurus cannot show on its own.