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the skeleton. The most important aspect of the new skeleton was its
completeness. Only the end of the tail, along with part of the skull, was
missing; the hands and feet were essentially complete, giving us our
first look at what the entire arms and legs of abelisaurs looked like.
All of this put us in a fortunate position. After analyzing the bony
details preserved in the skeleton, we knew that Alberto had discov-
ered a completely new species of dinosaur, which required a new sci-
entific name. Coining a new name is part of describing a new
dinosaur for the scientific community. After some consideration, we
named the new abelisaur
Aucasaurus garridoi
to commemorate two
of its attributes. The name for the new genus, Aucasaurus, means
that it is a new dinosaur from Auca Mahuevo, while the name for the
new species,
garridoi,
celebrates that it was discovered by Alberto
Garrido. Alberto had not only found the specimen, but had also
done much of the hard work required to collect it, so it seemed most
fitting to recognize his extraordinary efforts.
About one year after the specimen was discovered, all of the jack-
ets had been prepared. Rodolfo and Luis had made all the essential
Although very similar in many
aspects, the abelisaur
Aucasaurus
had a skull that was longer and lower
than that of its close relative, the
horned
Carnotaurus.
These two
abelisaur theropods are the most
completely known meat-eating di-
nosaurs discovered in Cretaceous
rocks of the Southern Hemisphere.
