page_title: Abelisauridae
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Abelisauridae / Classification
caption_attribution_description: Carnotaurus - reconstruction This is an altered version of an image by user DiBgd • In the original image the legs were probably too straight. Most dinosaur knees, with the exception of sauropods and some stegosaurs, might not have been able to straighten much past ~120 degrees with out dislocating. 'The Extreme Lifestyles and Habits of the Gigantic Tyrannosaurid Superpredators of the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia' / Gregory S. Paul in Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Tyrant King by Peter Larson and Kenneth Carpenter (2008).
context_page_description: Abelisauridae is a family of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs. Abelisaurids thrived during the Cretaceous period, on the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and today their fossil remains are found on the modern continents of Africa and South America, as well as on the Indian subcontinent and the island of Madagascar. Reports based on isolated teeth show the occurrence in the Late Jurassic of Portugal, and the confirmed existence of European Abelisaurids comes from the Late Cretaceous of France with Arcovenator. Abelisaurids first appear in the fossil record of the early middle Jurassic period, and at least two genera survived until the end of the Mesozoic era 66 million years ago.
  Like most theropods, abelisaurids were carnivorous bipeds. They were characterized by stocky hind limbs and extensive ornamentation of the skull bones, with grooves and pits. In many abelisaurids, such as Carnotaurus, the fore limbs are vestigial, the skull is shorter, and bony crests grow above the eyes.
context_section_description: Paleontologists Jose Bonaparte and Fernando Novas coined the name Abelisauridae in 1985 when they described the eponymous Abelisaurus. The name is formed from the family name of Roberto Abel, who discovered Abelisaurus, and from the Greek word σαυρος (sauros) meaning lizard. The very common suffix -idae is usually applied to zoological family names and is derived from the Greek suffix -ιδαι (-idai), which indicates a plural noun.
  Abelisauridae is a family in rank-based Linnaean taxonomy, within the infraorder Ceratosauria and the superfamily Abelisauroidea, which also contains the family Noasauridae. It has had several definitions in phylogenetic taxonomy. It was originally defined as a node-based taxon including Abelisaurus, Carnotaurus, their common ancestor, and all of its descendants.
  Later, it was redefined as a stem-based taxon, including all animals more closely related to Abelisaurus (or the more complete Carnotaurus) than to Noasaurus. The node-based definition would not include animals such as Rugops or Ilokelesia, which are thought to be more basal than Abelisaurus and would be included by a stem-based definition. Within the Abelisauridae is the subgroup Carnotaurinae, and among carnotaurines, Aucasaurus and Carnotaurus are united in Carnotaurini.
caption: Illustration of Carnotaurus
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