Kurupi

Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Saurischia > Theropoda > Neotheropoda > Ceratosauria > Neoceratosauria > Abelisauroidea > Abelisauridae

Overview: Fossils belonging to this carnivorous dinosaur come from Brazil’s Marília Formation. It’s currently the only dinosaur taxon properly described and named from its geological layers, though we know it would’ve coexisted with many others. This likely included titanosaurs, ornithopods and other theropods. Kurupi was a medium-sized predator, growing to be about five meters in length. It belonged to the ceratosaur family Abelisauridae, which made it related to a number of well known dinosaurs like Carnotaurus and Majungasaurus. How exactly it fit in among them has yet to be fully understood, though it was at least more derived than genera like Spectrovenator. Kurupi itself isn’t known from very many fossils, so classifying it allows us to reconstruct its appearance. It probably had a short-snouted, deep skull and heavily reduced, basically useless forelimbs.

The holotype specimen of Kurupi only consists part of the pelvis and some tail vertebrae. In some sources, a potential femur has been reported as well. It was first discovered in the early 2000’s, in the southern Brazilian state of São Paulo. The rocky matrix surrounding the bones was particularly solid, so it took some years until the remains were extracted and fully prepared for study. After it was recognized as a taxon new to science, it would be described as such in 2021. Kurupi derives its generic name from a fertility god of the same name, also spelled “Curupí”, which often appears in the mythology of the local Guaraní people. The name was chosen in reference to the bones having been found near a love hotel. One species is known, Kurupi itaata, which takes its name from the local Tupi language, meaning “hard rock”, after the aforementioned rock.