Abstract
Systematic excavations in the fluvial mudstone unit of the Upper Cretaceous Lameta Formation near Rahioli village in Kheda District, Gujarat, have yielded a large-bodied (~8 m long) abelisaurid theropod, Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis, gen. et sp. nov. Abundant skeletal remains represent this new genus and species. Rahiolisaurus provides novel information on foot morphology, hitherto little known in other abelisaurids. Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis is a gracile and slender-limbed abelisaurid that appears to be a distinctive taxon from the sympatric species Rajasaurus narmadensis.
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Acknowledgments
The palaeontological fieldwork in India was carried out in collaboration with Texas Tech University, the Indian Statistical Institute, and the Geological Survey of India. We thank the National Geographic Society, the Dinosaur Society, and the Smithsonian Institution for continued funding of the field projects in India and the Directors of the Indian Statistical Institute and the Geological Survey of India for logistical support. We thank D. Pradhan and Shyamal Roy for field assistance, the Indian Statistical Institute and the Geological Survey of India for access to the theropod collections. We thank Catherine Forster, Dave Krause, José Bonaparte, Alejandro Kramarz, Jorge Calvo and Rodolfo Coria for access to specimens under their care, Jorge González and Jeff Martz for illustrations, and Bill Mueller for photography. Thanks are given to Bill Mueller, Jeff Wilson, Sara Burch, Dave Krause, Matt Carrano and Saswati Bandyopadhyay for their useful comments on the manuscript. Texas Tech University, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica, CONICET, Fundación Antorchas, National Geographic Society, and The Jurassic Foundation supported the research.
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Novas, F.E., Chatterjee, S., Rudra, D.K., Datta, P. (2010). Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis, n. gen. n. sp., A New Abelisaurid Theropod from the Late Cretaceous of India. In: New Aspects of Mesozoic Biodiversity. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, vol 132. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10311-7_3
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