Re: Abelisaurs

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 04:51 PM 10/1/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Can anyone give me some info on the Abelisauridae?  From what I hear 
>they aren't well known.  Does anyone know if a skull has been found 
>for Abelisaurus?  Thanks in advance.

In fact, ALL that is known of Abelisaurus is its skull!

Abelisaurids are best known from the mid-Cretaceous Carnotaurus of
Argentina.  Other abelisaurids include Late Cretaceous Abelisaurus of
Argentina and Late Cretaceous Majungasaurus of Madagascar (which is also
known from incredible material).  Tarascosaurus is a fragmentary possible
abelisaurid from France, and Xenotarsosaurus (once thought to be an
abelisaur) may be much more primitive, as mentioned by Coria, Salgado, and
others in abstracts in Ameghiniana.

Abelisaurids are ceratosaurs, close relatives of the famous Ceratosaurus of
the Late Jurassic of North America.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661