Rugops primus
"wrinkle face"
- Length
- 5.3 m (17.4 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (95 Mya)
- Place
- Niger
- Food
- Carnivore
- Clade
- Abelisauridae
Rugops (meaning ‘wrinkle face’) is a monospecific genus of basal abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage, approximately 95 million years ago) in what is now the Echkar Formation in Niger. The type and only species, Rugops primus, is known only from a partial skull. It was named and described in 2004 by Paul Sereno, Jeffery Wilson and Jack Conrad. Rugops has an estimated length of 4.4 – 5.3 m and weight of 410 kg. The top of its skull bears several pits which correlates with overlaying scale and the front of the snout would have had an armour-like dermis.
What we know
- Named by Sereno et al. 2004.
- Body length estimated at about 5.3 m.
- Fossils found in Niger.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Rugops — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.