Abelisauroidea
| Abelisaurs Temporal range: Middle Jurassic - Late Cretaceous, 170–66 Ma |
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| Reconstructed skeleton of Aucasaurus garridoi | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | †Neoceratosauria |
| Superfamily: |
†Abelisauroidea Bonaparte & Novas, 1985 |
| Clade: |
†Abelisauria Novas, 1992 |
| Families | |
Abelisaurs (Abelisauria or Abelisauroidea) were a phylogenetic group within Neotheropoda. Some well-known dinosaurs of this group include the abelisaurids Abelisaurus, Carnotaurus, and Majungasaurus.
Abelisaurs flourished in the Southern hemisphere during the Cretaceous period, but their origins can be traced back to at least the Middle Jurassic, when they had a more global distribution (the earliest known abelisaur remains come from Australian and South American deposits dated to about 170 million years ago). By the Cretaceous period, abelisaurs had apparently become extinct in Asia and North America, possibly due to competition from tyrannosaurs. However, advanced abelisaurs of the family Abelisauridae persisted in the southern continents until the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago.
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