Looking for information on my abelisaur tooth.

[FrostbyteFossils]

So I bought one of those small abelisaur teeth that came from kem kem that everyone keeps falsely calling raptor teeth. Does anyone know any more information on it? Abelisaurs have small teeth compared to their heads so the creature probably wasn't too tiny. It's about 1.5 - 2cm with even serrations. As i understand it not much is known of this animal but anything you guys know would be appreciated!

 

-Tom

[Tidgy's Dad]

Most splendid tooth! 

There's this : 

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_29-2-2016-9-34-57

[FrostbyteFossils]

Thanks! So you reckon its the same kind? Have they given it a nickname?

 

Thanks so much for replying.

Edited November 19, 2017 by FrostbyteFossils

[Troodon]

Nice Abelsaurid tooth.  Not sure if you've seen my post but its attached.

Fragmantry material and isolated teeth have been found including a partial maxilla but nothing to describe it.  Poorly understood dinosaur from the Kem Kem and it's unknown if more than one exists in this fauna.  You are correct it's not a RAPTOR although sellers like to tag it as one must help sales.

 

This paper is from Fruitbat's pdf library here on the forum

Mahler, L. (2005). Record of Abelisauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Morocco. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 25(1).

[Troodon]

An Abelsaurid has been described from Morocco but not from the Kem Kem

 Chenanisaurus barbaricus from the Maastrichtian Phosphate Mines in the Ouled Abdoun basin.   .

 

I

 

[FrostbyteFossils]

Thanks for sharing. That helped a lot. Hopefully soon they will find some more bone material and eventually officially name the dino.

[LordTrilobite]

An Abelisaurid femur has actually been described from the Kem Kem beds. Though the creature does not have a name yet, it does give some info of the type of Abelisaurids that roamed there.

 

Here's the paper.

https://peerj.com/articles/1754/

 

And while these Abelisaurids seem to have gotten really large. They are by no means the largest predators in this ecosystem with Spinosaurs, Carcharodontosaurs and crocodiles beating them in size.

 

No good skull material has been described so far. So we don't know a whole lot about these animals besides which family they belong to and roughyl how big they got. But I have a rather odd looking bone from the Kem Kem beds that looks unlike anything present in Kem Kem. It's a horn core, which I'm thinking is from a skull, and the only thing that even remotely looks like it, are the brow horns of Carnotaurus. Nothing else looks anything like it.

Carnotaurus is also an Abelisaurid and the only one known to have such brow horns. The problem is that Carnotaurus is from the Maastrichtian of South America. That's quite a lot of time and space between these animals.

 

So take this with a grain of salt, as more research needs to be done on Abelisaurs in Kem Kem. But it wouldn't surprise me if the Kem Kem Abelisaurs had brow horns on their skulls.

 

[FrostbyteFossils]

Yeah interesting horn core. I've heard of the femur discovery. To be honest, due to the size of these teeth (which are tiny) it probably came from something with a very small skull such as something similar to a carnotaurus as you mentioned. But considering they lived on opposite sides of the supercontinent, the carnotaur family and this mystery dino's family probably separated a while ago (during early - mid jurassic, maybe?) and ended up in

S. America and Africa. It probably did have brow horns of some kind. It's too hard to know at this point. Looking foward to discovering more about this mystery beast.

Thanks for replying.

[Troodon]

Closer than you think this map is Aptian in age.

The cretaceous dinosaurs of south america are an excellent reference to compare Kem Kem material against.  Discoveries of partially articulated specimens make it possible.

 

[LordTrilobite]

Yes, at the time of the Kem Kem beds the continents had separated. But as Troodon said, you don't have to go too far back in time to when South America and Africa were indeed connected.