Quilmesaurus

Quilmesaurus is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Patagonian Upper Cretaceous (Campanian stage) of Argentina.

Discovery and naming
During the late 1980s, a field crew from the Universidad Nacional Tucumán, led by Jaime Powell, uncovered forty kilometres south of Roca City, in Río Negro province, northern Argentina, the remains of a theropod near the Salitral Ojo de Agua. In 2001, Rodolfo Aníbal Coria named and described the type species Quilmesaurus curriei. The genus name is derived from the Quilme, a Native American people, and the specific name honours Dr. Philip John Currie, a Canadian theropod specialist.[1]

The holotype and currently only specimen was designated the collection number MPCA-PV-100, in the Museo Provincial "Carlos Ameghino". It consists of the distal lower half of the right femur (thighbone), and a complete right tibia (shinbone), collected from the Allen Formation of the Malarge Group in the Neuquén Basin. These deposits date from the Campanian to Maastrichtian. The specimen came from the fluvial sandstones at the bottom of the Allen Formation. The taxon is notable as it represents one of the youngest records of a non-avian theropod from Patagonia.

Description
Quilmesaurus is estimated to have measured five to six meters (sixteen to twenty feet) in length. It was originally found be distinguished by unique features of the leg: a well developed mesiodistal crest on the femur; a hooked cnemial crest on the tibia; a asymmetrical distal tibia end; and possessing a later maleolus two times larger than the medial maleolus.