Ilokelesia

Ilokelesia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 95 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Life restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Family:	†Abelisauridae
Subfamily:	†Carnotaurinae
Clade:	†Brachyrostra
Genus:	†Ilokelesia Coria & Salgado, 1998
Species:	† I. aguadagrandensis
Binomial name
Ilokelesia aguadagrandensis Coria & Salgado, 1998

Ilokelesia is an abelisaur found in 1991,^[1] preserved in the layers of the earliest Late Cretaceous^[2] of the Río Limay Formation, Neuquén Group, located near Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina. The specimen, consisting of very fragmentary elements of the skull and the axial and appendicular skeleton, 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 descriptor 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 the 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 considered 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; but it was considered to retain primitive features for Abelisauria, such as an opening in the quadrate bone and a T-shaped postorbital. A subsequent analysis has placed it within Abelisauridae, as a brachyrostran carnotaurine.^[3]

See also

• Timeline of ceratosaur research

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

1. Coria, R.A.; Salgado, L. & Calvo, J.O. (1991) "Primeros restos de dinosaurios Theropoda del Miembro Huincul, Formación Río Limay (Cretácico Tardío Presenoniano), Neuquén, Argentina." Ameghiniana, 28: 405-406.
2. Coria, R.A.; Currie, P.J. & Carabajal, A.P. (2006). "A new abelisauroid theropod from northwestern Patagonia" Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 43: 1283—1289. doi:101139/E06-25
3. Canale, J.I., Scanferla, C.A., Agnolin, F., and Novas, F.E. (2009). "New carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of NW Patagonia and the evolution of abelisaurid theropods". Naturwissenschaften 96 (3): 409–414. doi:10.1007/s00114-008-0487-4. PMID 19057888.