Ceratosaur?

[Dino Dad 81]

Hey all,

 

This is supposed to be from Isalo IIIb in Madagascar. Does it look ceratosaur to you? Could it be Majungasaurus with faulty location? I suspect not because of the character on the denticles of Majungasaurus teeth.

 

 

[Troodon]

This will be very similar to our discussions on Niger material.  The big issue I see with Madagascar material other than little being published or known on the theropod side is Provenance.   This material passes through many hands with deposits located close to one another and collected by locals.   Is it mid Jurassic (Isalo I, II , IIIa, IIIb fm), Maastrichtian (Maevarano Fm) or even Turonian (Ambolafotsy Fm) which is not in the Mahajanga basin.   The latter has an abelisauroid described.   We know even less about the Jurassic theropods in the Isalo Group compared to the Maevarano Fm.   A paper was published looking at a handful of isolated teeth and described them as morph types.  Several were possible Abelisauridae and had affinities to Majungatholus  none were identified as Ceratosaurid.    Other than your concern over its provenance having a partial tooth makes it difficult to completely compare the Multivariate analysis presented in the paper to yours. 

 

 

Simone Maganuco, Andrea Cau & Giovanni Pasini,  First description of theropod remains from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Madagascar 2005