QUILMESAURUS
a meat-eating abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: KEEL-may-SOR-us
Meaning: Quilme lizard
Author/s: Coria (
2001)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Rio Negro, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #488
Quilmesaurus curriei
(Currie's Quilme Lizard)Etymology
Quilmesaurus is derived from "Quilme" (an indigenous tribe of Diaguita peoples from what is now Tucumán in northwest Argentina) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard). Incidently, Quilmes is also a Buenos Aires-based brewery, founded in 1888 by a German immigrant. Their Quilmes beer is touted as Argentina's favourite brew though we suspect, like San Miguel to the Spanish, not by Argentinians.
The
species epithet,
curriei (KUHR-ee-ie) honors Canadian paleontologist Philip J. Currie.
Discovery
The remains of
Quilmesaurus were discovered at Salitral Ojo de Aqua in the Allen Formation, 40km south of Roca City, Rio Negro Province, Argentina, in the late 1980s by a Universidad Nacional de Tucumán field crew, led by Jaime Powell.
The
holotype (MPCA-PV-100) is a partial right femur (thigh) and a right tibia (shin).
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 73-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 6 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 1.5 tons
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Coria RA (2001) "A new theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia" in Tanke and Carpenter (eds.) "
Mesozoic Vertebrate Life".
• Martinelli A and Forasiepi A (2004) "
Late Cretaceous vertebrates from bajo de Santa Rosa (Allen Formation), Río Negro province, Argentina, with the description of a new sauropod dinosaur (Titanosauridae)".
Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Nueva Serie. 6(2): 257–305. DOI: 10.22179/revmacn.6.88
• Juárez Valieri RD, Fiorelli LE and Cruz LE (2004) "
Quilmesaurus curriei Coria, 2001. Su validez taxonómica y relaciones filogenéticas".
XX Jornadas Argentinas de Paleontología de Vertebrados (La Plata), Resúmenes, p. 36-37. [ABSTRACT.]
• Coria RA and Salgado L (2005) "Last Patagonian non-avian theropods" in Carpenter (ed.) "
The Carnivorous Dinosaurs".
• Juárez Valieri RD, Fiorelli LE and Cruz LE (2007) "
Quilmesaurus curriei Coria, 2001. Su validez taxonómica y relaciones filogenéticas".
Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" – Paleontología. 9 (1): 59–66. DOI: 10.22179/revmacn.9.367
• Novas FE (2009) "
The Age of Dinosaurs in South America".
• Grillo ON and Delcourt R (2016) "Allometry and body length of abelisauroid theropods: Pycnonemosaurus nevesi is the new king".
Cretaceous Research, 69: 71–89. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2016.09.001
Time stands still for no man, and research is ongoing. If you spot an error, or want to expand, edit or add a dinosaur, please use
this form. Go
here to contribute to our FAQ.
All dinos are GM free, and no herbivores were eaten during site construction!
To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
QUILMESAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
‹
http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/QUILMESAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.