The first record of Abelisauridae (Theropoda: Ceratosauria) from Uruguay (Late Jurassic, Tacuarembó Formation)

ABSTRACT

An incomplete albeit well preserved tooth from the Late Jurassic Tacuarembó Formation (Uruguay) shows a character combination only found in abelisaurid theropods, i.e. irregular enamel, hooked distal denticles, interdenticular sulci, lanceolate cross-sectional shape, and straight distal border. Its referral to Abelisauridae was tested via a phylogenetic analysis, with the Uruguayan taxon deeply nested within the clade. This is the first record of abelisaurids in Uruguay and one of the few Jurassic records of the group worldwide. Abelisaurids occur together with ceratosaurids and megalosaurines in the Tacuarembó Formation, revealing a rich Late Jurassic theropod assemblage.

KEYWORDS:

• Gondwana
• Tooth
• South America
• theropod
• abelisaurid

Acknowledgments

Rojas provided access to specimens under her care. C. Hendrickx, N. Araújo and G. Eastman are acknowledged for fruitful discussions. F. Agnolìn and an anonymous reviewer contributed to improve an original draft of this paper. This is a contribution to project FAPESP 2020/07997-4 (responsible: ML).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2022.2140425

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese in Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2020/07997-4].