Ilokelesia

Taxobox
name = "Ilokelesia"
status = Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Theropoda
infraordo = Ceratosauria
superfamilia = Abelisauroidea
familia = Abelisauridae
genus = "Ilokelesia"
species = "I. aguadagradensis"
binomial = "Ilokelesia aguadagradensis"
binomial_authority = Coria & Salgado, 1998

"Ilokelesia" is a primitive abelisaur found in 1991, [Coria, R.A.; Salgado, L. & Calvo, J.O. "Primeros restos de dinosaurios Theropoda del Miembro Huincul, Formación Río Limay (Cretácico Tardío Presenoniano), Neuquén, Argentina." (1991) "Ameghiniana, 28": 405-406.] preserved in the layers of the Early Cretaceous of the Río Limay Formation, Neuquén Group, located near Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina. The specimen, consisting of very fragmentary elements of the skull, the axial and the apendicular skeletons, was described by Coria et al. in late 1998.The generic name’s etymology is derived from the Mapuche language, "ilo" meaning “flesh” and "kelesio", “lizard”; while the specific epithet reflects the name of the locality where the fossil was found, Aguada Grande. "Ilokelesia", a medium sized theropod, is characterized by features of the skull, namely of its quadrate and postorbital bones. The vertebral series also has distinctive characters setting it apart from other abelisaurs, such as reduced processes on the cervical vertebrae and dorsal vertebrae lacking pleurocoels."I. aguadagrandensis" was the most basal abelisaur described at the time, sharing characters, such as an expansion of the postorbital bone above the orbit and a flange of the same bone inside the orbit, with Abelisauridae and Noasauridae; it retained, however, primitive features for Abelisauria as are an opening in the quadrate bone and a T-shaped postorbital.

References

Rodolfo A. Coria, Leonardo Salgado. A Basal Abelisauria Novas, 1992 (Theropoda-Ceratosauria) from the Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina. (December 1998.) Lisbon. "Gaia Nº 15". Pp. 89-102

Notes