Abelisauroidea is a clade of theropoddinosaurs within the Ceratosauria. Some well-known dinosaurs of this group include the abelisauridsAbelisaurus, Carnotaurus, and Majungasaurus.
Abelisauroids flourished in the Southern hemisphere during the Cretaceous period, but their origins can be traced back to at least the Middle Jurassic, when they had a more global distribution (the earliest known abelisauroid remains come from Australian and South American deposits dated to about 170 million years ago).[1] By the Cretaceous period, abelisauroids had apparently become extinct in Asia and North America, possibly due to competition from tyrannosauroids. However, advanced abelisauroids of the family Abelisauridae persisted in the southern continents until the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago.[2]
^David B. Weishampel; Peter Dodson; Halszka Osmólska (2004-11-06). The Dinosauria: Second Edition. University of California Press. p. 109. ISBN978-0-520-24209-8.
^Martín D. Ezcurra, M.D. and Agnolín, F.L. (2012). "An abelisauroid dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Laurasia and its implications on theropod palaeobiogeography and evolution." Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, (advance online publication).
^Tortosa, Thierry; Eric Buffetaut; Nicolas Vialle; Yves Dutour; Eric Turini; Gilles Cheylan (2013). "A new abelisaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern France: Palaeobiogeographical implications". Annales de Paléontologie. 100 (In press): 63–86. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2013.10.003.
