| Ligabueino Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 125 Ma |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Abelisauroidea |
| Family: | incertae sedis |
| Genus: | †Ligabueino |
| Species: | †L. andesi Bonaparte, 1996 |
Ligabueino (meaning "Ligabue's little one") is a genus of noasaurid dinosaur named after Italian doctor Giancario Ligabue. It is known only from an extremely fragmentary specimen, measuring 70 cm (2.3 ft) long. In spite of initial reports that it was an adult, the unfused vertebrae indicate that the specimen was a juvenile.[1] It was a theropod and lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, in what is now Patagonia. It is sometimes considered a member of the Noasauridae, but its remains are too fragmentary to show any unique similarities with that group. In 2011, Carrano and colleagues found that it could only be placed with any confidence in the larger group Abelisauroidea.[1]
Fragments found were: a femur, ilium, pubis, phalanx and neural arches of cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae.