A new giant carnivorous dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Patagonia

CORIA, R.A., SALGADO, L.

NATURE

Nature

Lugar: Londres; Año: 1995 vol. 377 p. 224 - 226

0028-0836

Large carnivorous animals, the top members of the trophic chain, are rare, and flesh-eating dinosaurs were rarer still. For years the only known giant theropods were Tyrannosaurus rex and the poorly known Deinocheirus mirificus, both from the Northern Hemisphere, but many important new dinosaurs have been discovered in the Southern Hemisphere during the past decade, considerbly increasing our knowledge of ancient ecosystems. Here we report a new giant carnivorous dinosaur from the Upper Cretacoues of northwestern Patagonia (Argentina). This new taxon Giganotosaurus carolinii, gen. et sp. nov., is characterized by a proportionally low skull, a reduced shoulder girdle, and robust vertebrae and hind limbs. It represents a primitive evolutionary iteration of large theropods, and provides an opportunity to examine the Gondwanan dinosaur paleocommunities and their relationships to those from Laurasia. Several characters place Giganotosaurus carolinii within the Tetanurae, and closer to Neotetanurae than to Torvosauroidea. Giganotosaurus carolinii is the largest theropod ever reorded from Southern Hemisphere and is probably the world´s biggets predatory dinosaur, having a body 12.5 metres long and an estimated weight of 6 to 8 tonnes.