ELEMGASEM
a brachyrostran abelisaurid ceratosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation:
Meaning: for Elemgasem
Author/s: Baiano
et al. (
2022)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #1077
Elemgasem nubilus
Etymology
Elemgasem is named after a Tehuelche god from the mythology of the area where the fossil was found.
The
species epithet,
nubilus, means "foggy day" in Latin, in reference to the unusually foggy climate during the expedition that discovered the holotype.
Zoobank registry:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3032EB89-5E1C-4266-A937-7776ED063506.
Discovery
The remains of
Elemgasem were discovered at "Sierra del Portezuelo" in the Portezuelo Formation, about 12 miles west of Cutral Có City, Neuquén Province, Argentina, during a joint expedition by the Museo Carmen Funes (Plaza Huincul, Argentina) and the American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA) in 2002.
The
holotype ( MCF-PVPH-380) includes vertebrae from the neck and tail, a right thigh and calf, a left shin, calf, ankle and heel, metatarsals, and various toe bones. Three vertebrae from the mid-section and two from the end section of the tail are fused due to spondyloarthropathy (aka Spondyloarthritis) which is only the second case of such a pathology amongst none-bird theropods (behind
Allosaurus) and the first from the ceratosaurian side of the theropod track.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Turonian–Coniacian
Age range: 94-86 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Baiano MA, Pol D, Bellardini F, Windholz GJ, Cerda IA, Garrido AC and Coria RA (2022) "
Elemgasem nubilus: a new brachyrostran abelisaurid (Theropoda, Ceratosauria) from the Portezuelo Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Patagonia, Argentina".
Papers in Palaeontology, 8(5): e1462. DOI: 10.1002/spp2.1462.
• Xing L, Rothschild BM, Du C, Wang D, Wen K and Su J (2022) "New palaeopathology cases of
Allosaurus fragilis (Dinosauria: Theropoda)".
Historical Biology, 36(1): 203–208. DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2022.2155817.
• Baiano MA, Cerda IA, Bertozzo F and Pol D (2024) "New information on paleopathologies in non-avian theropod dinosaurs: a case study on South American abelisaurids".
BMC Ecology and Evolution, 24(6). DOI: 10.1186/s12862-023-02187-x.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
ELEMGASEM :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/ELEMGASEM›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
