New fossils of Abelisauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the upper Maastrichtian of Morocco, North Africa

Longrich, Nicholas R.; Isasmendi, Erik; Pereda-Suberbiola, Xabier; Jalil, Nour-Eddine

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105677

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…That lambeosaurines are (so far) unknown from East Africa or the Arabian plate could result from geographic barriers to dispersal. It is conceivable that the Trans-Saharan Seaway may have divided Africa into a series of smaller landmasses 39 , with endemic dinosaur faunas, but sampling remains and issue and more dinosaur fossils are needed from Africa to test this hypothesis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dinosaurs are very rare as a proportion of fossils, but the exceptional abundance of fossils means Morocco’s Phosphates currently have the best record of dinosaurs from the latest Cretaceous of Africa. Dinosaurs include titanosaurians 9 , the abelisaurid Chenanisaurus barbaricus 8 , 10 and two smaller abelisaurids 39 , and the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid Ajnabia odysseus 7 . Dinosaurs typically preserve as isolated bones 8 , 39 and more rarely as associated remains 7 , 9 , a pattern also seen in the marine reptiles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dinosaurs include titanosaurians 9 , the abelisaurid Chenanisaurus barbaricus 8 , 10 and two smaller abelisaurids 39 , and the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid Ajnabia odysseus 7 . Dinosaurs typically preserve as isolated bones 8 , 39 and more rarely as associated remains 7 , 9 , a pattern also seen in the marine reptiles. This preservational mode likely results from carcasses spending time afloat, then falling apart due to decomposition and the action of scavengers; shark feeding traces are common on bones in the phosphates 29 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new small duckbilled dinosaur (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) from Morocco and dinosaur diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa

Longrich,

Pereda-Suberbiola,

Bardet

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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In the Late Cretaceous, northern and southern hemispheres evolved distinct dinosaurian faunas. Titanosaurians and abelisaurids dominated the Gondwanan continents; hadrosaurids, ceratopsians and tyrannosaurs dominated North America and Asia. Recently, a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid, Ajnabia odysseus, was reported from the late Maastrichtian phosphates of the Oulad Abdoun Basin Morocco, suggesting dispersal between Laurasia and Gondwana. Here we report new fossils from the phosphates of Morocco showing lambeosaurines achieved high diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa. A skull represents a new dwarf lambeosaurine, Minqaria bata. Minqaria resembles Ajnabia odysseus in size, but differs in the ventrally positioned jugal facet and sinusoidal toothrow. The animal is small, ~ 3.5 m long, but the fused braincase shows it was mature. A humerus and a femur belong to larger hadrosaurids, ~ 6 m long, implying at least three species coexisted. The diversity of hadrosaurids in Europe and Africa suggests a dispersal-driven radiation, with lambeosaurines diversifying to take advantage of low ornithischian diversity. African lambeosaurines are small compared to North American and Asia hadrosaurids however, perhaps due to competition with titanosaurians. Hadrosaurids are unknown from eastern Africa, suggesting Moroccan hadrosaurids may be part of a distinct insular fauna, and represent an island radiation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new small duckbilled dinosaur (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) from Morocco and dinosaur diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa

Longrich,

Pereda-Suberbiola,

Bardet

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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“…Other theropods show similar patterns. Multiple abelisaurids coexisted in the late Maastrichtian of Morocco [72], the Campanian-Maastrichtian La Colonia Formation of Argentina [73], and the Maastrichtian Lameta Formation of India [74][75][76][77]. Several large carnivores coexisted in the Cenomanian Kem Kem beds of Morocco [78,79] and the Cenomanian Candeleros Formation of Argentina [80,81].…”

Section: Diversity Patterns Of Tyrannosaurs and Apex Predatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taxonomic Status of Nanotyrannus lancensis (Dinosauria: Tyrannosauroidea)—A Distinct Taxon of Small-Bodied Tyrannosaur

Longrich,

Saitta

2024

Fossil Studies

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Tyrannosaurs are among the most intensively studied and best-known dinosaurs. Despite this, their relationships and systematics are highly controversial. An ongoing debate concerns the validity of Nanotyrannus lancensis, interpreted either as a distinct genus of small-bodied tyrannosaur or a juvenile of Tyrannosaurus rex. We examine multiple lines of evidence and show that the evidence strongly supports recognition of Nanotyrannus as a distinct species for the following reasons: 1. High diversity of tyrannosaurs and predatory dinosaurs supports the idea that multiple tyrannosaurids inhabited the late Maastrichtian of Laramidia; 2. Nanotyrannus lacks characters supporting referral to Tyrannosaurus or Tyrannosaurinae but differs from T. rex in >150 morphological characters, while intermediate forms combining the features of Nanotyrannus and T. rex are unknown; 3. Histology shows specimens of Nanotyrannus showing (i) skeletal fusions, (ii) mature skull bone textures, (iii) slow growth rates relative to T. rex, (iv) decelerating growth in their final years of life, and (v) growth curves predicting adult masses of ~1500 kg or less, showing these animals are subadults and young adults, not juvenile Tyrannosaurus; 4. growth series of other tyrannosaurids, including Tarbosaurus and Gorgosaurus, do not show morphological changes proposed for a Nanotyrannus–Tyrannosaurus growth series, and deriving Tyrannosaurus from Nanotyrannus requires several changes inconsistent with known patterns of dinosaur development; 5. Juvenile T. rex exist, showing diagnostic features of Tyrannosaurus; 6. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that Nanotyrannus may lie outside Tyrannosauridae. Tyrannosaur diversity before the K-Pg extinction is higher than previously appreciated. The challenges inherent in diagnosing species based on fossils mean paleontologists may be systematically underestimating the diversity of ancient ecosystems.

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“…Wilson et al, 2003), northern Africa (e.g. Longrich et al, 2023), and Madagascar (e.g. Krause et al, 2007;Farke and Sertich, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new abelisaurid dinosaur from the end Cretaceous of Patagonia and evolutionary rates among the Ceratosauria

Pol,

Baiano,

Černý

et al. 2024

Cladistics

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Gondwanan dinosaur faunae during the 20 Myr preceding the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K/Pg) extinction included several lineages that were absent or poorly represented in Laurasian landmasses. Among these, the South American fossil record contains diverse abelisaurids, arguably the most successful groups of carnivorous dinosaurs from Gondwana in the Cretaceous, reaching their highest diversity towards the end of this period. Here we describe Koleken inakayali gen. et sp. n., a new abelisaurid from the La Colonia Formation (Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous) of Patagonia. Koleken inakayali is known from several skull bones, an almost complete dorsal series, complete sacrum, several caudal vertebrae, pelvic girdle and almost complete hind limbs. The new abelisaurid shows a unique set of features in the skull and several anatomical differences from Carnotaurus sastrei (the only other abelisaurid known from the La Colonia Formation). Koleken inakayali is retrieved as a brachyrostran abelisaurid, clustered with other South American abelisaurids from the latest Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian), such as Aucasaurus, Niebla and Carnotaurus. Leveraging our phylogeny estimates, we explore rates of morphological evolution across ceratosaurian lineages, finding them to be particularly high for elaphrosaurine noasaurids and around the base of Abelisauridae, before the Early Cretaceous radiation of the latter clade. The Noasauridae and their sister clade show contrasting patterns of morphological evolution, with noasaurids undergoing an early phase of accelerated evolution of the axial and hind limb skeleton in the Jurassic, and the abelisaurids exhibiting sustained high rates of cranial evolution during the Early Cretaceous. These results provide much needed context for the evolutionary dynamics of ceratosaurian theropods, contributing to broader understanding of macroevolutionary patterns across dinosaurs.

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New fossils of Abelisauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the upper Maastrichtian of Morocco, North Africa

Cited by 6 publications

References 97 publications

A new small duckbilled dinosaur (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) from Morocco and dinosaur diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa

A new small duckbilled dinosaur (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) from Morocco and dinosaur diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa

Taxonomic Status of Nanotyrannus lancensis (Dinosauria: Tyrannosauroidea)—A Distinct Taxon of Small-Bodied Tyrannosaur

A new abelisaurid dinosaur from the end Cretaceous of Patagonia and evolutionary rates among the Ceratosauria

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