Predatory Dinosaur Remains from Madagascar: Implications for the Cretaceous Biogeography of Gondwana

Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar include several specimens of a large theropod dinosaur. One specimen includes a nearly complete and exquisitely preserved skull with thickened pneumatic nasals, a median frontal horn, and a dorsal projection on the parie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Sampson, Scott D., Witmer, Lawrence M., Forster, Catherine A., Krause, David W., O'Connor, Patrick M., Dodson, Peter, Ravoavy, Florent
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1998
Subjects:
Indian
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.280.5366.1048
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.280.5366.1048
Description
Summary:Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar include several specimens of a large theropod dinosaur. One specimen includes a nearly complete and exquisitely preserved skull with thickened pneumatic nasals, a median frontal horn, and a dorsal projection on the parietals. The new materials are assigned to the enigmatic theropod group Abelisauridae on the basis of a number of unique features. Fossil remains attributable to abelisaurids are restricted to three Gondwanan landmasses: South America, Madagascar, and the Indian subcontinent. This distribution is consistent with a revised paleogeographic reconstruction that posits prolonged links between these landmasses (via Antarctica), perhaps until late in the Late Cretaceous.

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