Majungasaurus
Majungasaurus is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in Madagascar from 70 to 66 million years ago. It is one of the last known non-avian dinosaurs that went extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. It was the apex predator in its ecosystem, mainly preying on sauropods like Rapetosaurus.
About Majungasaurus in brief
Majungasaurus is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in Madagascar from 70 to 66 million years ago. It is one of the last known non-avian dinosaurs that went extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. It was the apex predator in its ecosystem, mainly preying on sauropods like Rapetosaurus. It can be distinguished by its wider skull, the very rough texture and thickened bone on the top of its snout, and the single rounded horn on the roof of its skull, which was originally mistaken for the dome of a pachycephalosaur. Known from several well-preserved skulls and abundant skeletal material, Majung asaurus has recently become one of. the best-studied theropods from the Southern Hemisphere. It appears to be most closely related to abel isaurids from India rather than South America or continental Africa, a fact that has important biogeographical implications. The name is derived from the Latin word crenatus and the suffix -issimus, in reference to the numerous serrations on both front and rear edges of the teeth. The species was briefly called Majungatholus, a name which is now considered a junior synonym of MajungAsaurus. The genus contains a single species, Majunghasaurus crenatissimus, which is a bipedal predator with a short snout. Although the forelimbs are not completely known, they were very short, while the hind limbs were longer and very stocky.
The fossil remains were found in Mahajanga Province in northwestern Madagascar in 1896 by French paleontologist Charles Depéret. In 1993, scientists from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of Antananarivo began a series of expeditions to examine the fossils and geology of the Late Cret Jurassic sediments near the village of Berivotra. The following seven expeditions turned up hundreds of fossils, some of which were attached to a premaxilla that was described in 1996. On top of this skull was a dome-shaped swelling nearly identical to the one described by Sues and Taquet as Majungtholus atop Majungitholus. Although Majungathsaurus was judged to be older than Majungolus in 1998, the authors judged the name Majungarthus to be a better name for the species. The Mahjanga Basin Project claims credit for quintupling the known diversity of fossil taxa in the region. It would up tens of thousands of species new to science which belonged to an isolated region of Madagascar. The first expedition turned up a spectacularly preserved ropodly preserved skull in exquisite detail in 1996, which turned up up a new species of Majunthasaurus atop Majunthosaurus. This species was redescribed as redisaurus redisolus in 1998.
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This page is based on the article Majungasaurus published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
