Pronunciation: PYK-no-NEE-mo-SOR-us
Meaning: Thick Forest Lizard
Author/s: Kellner and Campos (2001)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Mato Grosso, Brazil
Acta Ordinal: #491
Pycnonemosaurus nevesi
Pycnonemosaurus was coined in 2002 by Alexander Kellner and Diógenes de Almeida Campos, who announced it as the best?known abelisaurid from Brazil, which sounds glorious... but isn't. Apart from the informally name "Cambará theropod", which may or may not belong to the same family, Pycnonemosaurus is the only known abelisaurid from Brazil, with remains amounting to a mere handful of teeth, seven lumps of vertebrae, a hip bone, and a couple of lower?leg bones — one of which, a tibia or shin, suffered "preservational problems" and was clumsily plastered and glued prior to description. Still, by process of elimination, the authors weren't fibbing, and Pycnonemosaurus is unique amongst its kind in sporting a small pubic foot, although a previously unseen "hatchet-shaped cnemial crest" on the front-side head of its shin—the projection that anchors the main thigh?extensor muscle used to straighten the leg during walking—has since been found in other family members. Pycnonemosaurus is the largest abelisaurid known from anywhere, based on Grillo and Delcourt's latest method for extrapolating total body size from fragmentary fossils.
(Neves' thick forest lizard)Etymology
Pycnonemosaurus is derived from the Greek "pycnós" (thick), "nemos" (forest) and "sauros" (lizard), in reference to the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso (meaning "thick forest" in Portuguese, the official language of Brazil) where it was discovered. The species epithet, nevesi, honors Iedo Batista Neves.
Discovery
The remains of Pycnonemosaurus were found in the Adamantina Formation at Paulo Creek, on Max de Barros Erhart's "Fazenda Roncador" (Roncador Farm), Cambebé area, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, by Llewellyn Ivor Price, way back in 1952/53, mingled with titanosaur bones.
The holotype (DGM 859-R) includes five incomplete teeth, parts of seven tail vertebrae, one piece of hip bone (the right pubis), a right shinbone (tibia) and a piece of the right calfbone (fibula).
