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Chenanisaurus, Late CretaceousCouche III Formation, Morocco · named 2017
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Chenanisaurus

Type species Chenanisaurus barbaricus

Lived
72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
Diet
Carnivore
Group
Theropods
Found in
Morocco
Named by
Longrich et al. 2017

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

2 finds

70 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

It lived on land beside a shallow sea in Morocco, where its bones were buried in marine phosphate deposits. Other dinosaurs from these deposits include Ajnabia, Minqaria and Phosphatotitan.

Field notes

About Chenanisaurus

What it was like

Chenanisaurus was a large abelisaur, a predator with a short, deep snout and tiny arms. It is known only from part of a lower jaw and some teeth, which show a heavy, powerful bite.

Its world

It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the very end of the Cretaceous, in what is now Morocco. Its fossils come from phosphate rocks laid down in a shallow sea, where bones of land animals sometimes washed out from the coast. It shared that coast with the small abelisaur Minqaria and the titanosaur Phosphatotitan.

How it was found

Longrich and colleagues named Chenanisaurus in 2017. The type species is Chenanisaurus barbaricus. It was one of the last large predators in Africa before the dinosaurs died out.

Field gallery

More views of Chenanisaurus

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Chenanisaurus in its habitat, photo 1

1 of 2

Lived alongside

Found in the same rock formations

A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Chenanisaurus.

The evidence

The science behind Chenanisaurus

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • Part of a lower jaw and isolated teeth are the main known remains.
  • The lower jaw is unusually short, deep and strongly curved.

Borrowed from relatives

  • The legs, tail and tiny arms in a restoration follow better-known abelisaurs such as Carnotaurus.

Still unknown

  • The shape of the complete skull and any ornaments above the eyes.
  • Its full body proportions and adult size.
  • Its skin texture and color.

Discovery timeline

  1. 2017Named itLongrich et al.
  2. 2021Same rocksLongrich et al.
  3. 2023Same rocksLongrich et al.

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Chenanisaurus

Sources: Wikidata