AUSTROCHEIRUS
an averostran theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous pf Argentina.
Pronunciation: OSS-tro-KIE-russ
Meaning: Southern hand
Author/s: Ezcurra
et al. (
2010)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Santa Cruz, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #728
Austrocheirus isasii
(Isasi's Southern Hand)Etymology
Austrocheirus is derived from the Greek "austros" (south) and "cheirus" (hand), referring to its discovery in south America in the southern hemisphere and its particularly noteworthy hands.
The
species epithet,
isasii, honours preparator Marcelo Pablo Isasi who found the holotype.
Discovery
The remains of
Austrocheirus were discovered in the Pari Aike Formation at Hoyada Arroyo Seco, close to the western
coast of the Leona River and four kilometers south of De los Hornos Hill, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, on the 17th of March, 2002.
The
holotype (MPM-PV 10003) consists of hand bones, several incomplete tail vertebrae, a partial shin, and some fragmentary foot bones.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 74-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 8 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Ezcurra MD, Agnolin FL and Novas FE (2010) "
An abelisauroid dinosaur with a non-atrophied manus from the Late Cretaceous Pari Aike Formation of Patagonia".
Zootaxa, 2450: 1–25.
• Rauhut OWM (2012) "A reappraisal of a putative record of abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of England".
Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 123(5): 779-786. DOI: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2012.05.008.
• Agnolín FL, Herrera GA, Rolando MA, Motta M, Rozadilla S, Verdiquio L, D’Angelo JS, Moyano-Paz D, Varela AN, Sterli J, Bogan S, Miner S, Moreno A, Muñoz G, Isasi MP and Novas FE (2023) "Fossil Vertebrates From The Cerro Fortaleza Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Santa Cruz Province, Argentina".
Cretaceous Research, 154: 105735. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105735.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
AUSTROCHEIRUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/AUSTROCHEIRUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
