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Description

The abelisaurids are an extremely interesting family of strange theropods I have not paid enough attention to which. Now I fix this situation. It's Aucasaurus garridoi from Campanian of Auca-Mahuevo in Argentina. It was described in 2002 on the basis of skeleton of excellent preservation, though without half of the tail. The region in which the fossils were found is known for numerous egg clutches of titanosaurs. Undoubtedly, this predator had no shortage of food, feeding on young sauropods.

Aucasaurus converges with the famous Carnotaurus sastrei and joins with it (along with a number of other taxa) in the Carnotaurini tribe. It is not as specialized as its horned relative, but still surprises with its anatomy. The most noticeable characteristic is the strong reduction of the forelimbs. They are proportionally larger than in Carnotaurus, but no less amazing: most of it was a long humerus, and the rest of the parts are highly reduced. Of the four metacarpals, only the two middle ones have fingers, very short and without the claws. In the rest of the this was "averaged" representative in its group. The completeness of the material makes Aucasaurus useful in the reconstruction of its relatives. The leg bones clearly indicate speed: it was a pursuing predator. And, like a Carnotaurus, it demonstrates a huge caudofemoralis muscles.

The animal's appearance is based primarily on the skin impressions of closest relative, but with my speculative additions. In particular, I showed the decoration in the form of long scales on the hands: it is a logical detail. Features of the humerus indicate high mobility, which means the possibility of using hands to signal by rapid movements. It is also another experiment with light-and-shadow. Looks pretty good.

Technical pencil HB, 2019.

Description

The abelisaurids are an extremely interesting family of strange theropods I have not paid enough attention to which. Now I fix this situation. It's Aucasaurus garridoi from Campanian of Auca-Mahuevo in Argentina. It was described in 2002 on the basis of skeleton of excellent preservation, though without half of the tail. The region in which the fossils were found is known for numerous egg clutches of titanosaurs. Undoubtedly, this predator had no shortage of food, feeding on young sauropods.

Aucasaurus converges with the famous Carnotaurus sastrei and joins with it (along with a number of other taxa) in the Carnotaurini tribe. It is not as specialized as its horned relative, but still surprises with its anatomy. The most noticeable characteristic is the strong reduction of the forelimbs. They are proportionally larger than in Carnotaurus, but no less amazing: most of it was a long humerus, and the rest of the parts are highly reduced. Of the four metacarpals, only the two middle ones have fingers, very short and without the claws. In the rest of the this was "averaged" representative in its group. The completeness of the material makes Aucasaurus useful in the reconstruction of its relatives. The leg bones clearly indicate speed: it was a pursuing predator. And, like a Carnotaurus, it demonstrates a huge caudofemoralis muscles.

The animal's appearance is based primarily on the skin impressions of closest relative, but with my speculative additions. In particular, I showed the decoration in the form of long scales on the hands: it is a logical detail. Features of the humerus indicate high mobility, which means the possibility of using hands to signal by rapid movements. It is also another experiment with light-and-shadow. Looks pretty good.

Technical pencil HB, 2019.