Eoabelisaurus
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Eoabelisaurus Temporal range: Middle Jurassic |
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| Eoabelisaurus holotype fossil, Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Abelisauridae |
| Genus: |
†Eoabelisaurus Pol & Rauhut, 2012 |
| Species: | †E. mefi |
| Binomial name | |
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Eoabelisaurus mefi Pol & Rauhut, 2012 |
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Eoabelisaurus is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period of what is now South America. It was a bipedal carnivore that was estimated to have reached 6–6.5 metres (19.7–21.3 ft) in length, although more recent estimates have yielded a size of 5.8 metres (19 ft).
In 2009, Argentinian paleontologist Diego Pol discovered the skeleton of a theropod near the village of Cerro Cóndor in Chubut Province. In 2012, based on these remains, the type species Eoabelisaurus mefi was named and described by Pol and his German colleague Oliver Walter Mischa Rauhut. The generic name combines a Greek ἠώς, (eos), "dawn", with the name Abelisaurus, in reference to the fact it represents an early relative of the latter. The specific name honours the MEF, the Museo Paleontológico "Egidio Feruglio", where Pol is active.
The holotype specimen, MPEF PV 3990, was uncovered in a layer of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, a lacustrine deposit dating from the Aalenian-Bajocian, roughly 170 million years old. It consists of a nearly complete skeleton with skull, of a subadult or adult individual.
Eoabelisaurus was assigned to the basalmost position in Abelisauridae by its describers. It would, then, be the oldest abelisaurid species known by forty million years. The describers indicated that in the cladistic analysis a difference of only a single trait would have resulted in a position lower in the evolutionary tree, basal in the Abelisauroidea. The following cladogram follows their analysis.
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