Not all of Argentina’s Dinosaurs were Giants

Last month Everything Dinosaur published details of a new super-sized titanosaur from Argentina.  An enormous animal that was to be featured in a special BBC television documentary “Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur”.  However, not all of Argentina’s dinosaurs were huge, scientists writing in the journal “Science Direct” have reported the discovery of fossil meat-eating dinosaur bones that may represent one of the smallest abelisaurids known from South America.

To read about the new giant dinosaur: “Sir David Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur”.

Not All South American Abelisauridae were the Size of Carnotaurus

"Meat-eating Bull" from Papo.

“Meat-eating Bull” from Papo.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Researchers from a number of Argentinian institutions operating under the collective umbrella of CONICET – The National Scientific and Technical Research Council, the country’s main academic body responsible for the promotion of science and technology, have reported finding the partial and fragmentary remains of a new abelisaurid dinosaur from north-west Patagonia.

The Rich Fossil Assemblage of the Candeleros Formation

Field work exploring the sandstone strata of the Candeleros Formation (Neuquén Province), has uncovered a partial femur, ribs, toe bones, a fragmentary pelvis, two fused sacral centra (from the vertebrae fused to the hip region) and a small piece of skull bone, identified as a frontal.  Although a histological analysis reveals that the animal was fully mature when it died, perhaps around fourteen years old, it is estimated to have been a little over four metres long and to have weighed about 240 kilogrammes.  That’s about half the length of Carnotaurus and around one quarter of the body weight.

A Small Abelisaurid

This dinosaur is one of the smallest abelisaurids known and a study of the bone fibres indicates that this dinosaur had a relatively lower growth rate when compared to other abelisaurids such as the much larger Aucasaurus garridoi, whose fossils also come from Argentina but from younger deposits.  Aucasaurus roamed Argentina around 85 million years ago, whereas this as yet, unnamed member of the Abelisauridae lived some eight million years earlier.

This new type of meat-eating dinosaur extends the theropod fauna of the Candeleros Formation.  As well as a number of abelisaurids, the Candeleros Formation is associated with carcharodontosaurids, a dromaeosaurid and alvarezsaurids.

CollectA have created a range of theropod dinosaur models including abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids in their scale model range: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric World Models.