Quilmesaurus Characteristics

Quilmesaurus measured around 20 feet (6 metres) in length. This bipedal dinosaur had a distinguished highly specialized knee joint. The femur (thigh bone) possess a strong, well-developed mediodistal crest (sharp ridge), and the tibia (shin bone) has a hooked cnemial crest (a crestlike prominence on the proximal end of the tibia of birds and some reptiles). Quilmesaurus had large, powerful hind legs with clawed toes and very short front arms also with clawed digits. It had a large head and a short neck. Its tail was long and stiff and was used for counter-balance as it moved around. Quilmesaurus, like most carnivores, had many sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

Quilmesaurus was a predatory, carnivorous dinosaur who probably terrorized large plant eaters.

Quilmesaurus fossils were found in the Allen formation in Patagonia, South America. Quilmesaurus is known mainly from distinctive hind limb material collected in the 1980s by a field crew led by Jaime E. Powell. Other dinosaur remains recovered from the Allen Formation include titanosaurs (Aeolosaurus), a lambeosaurine hadrosaur, a nodosaurid and dinosaur eggs.

Quilmesaurus was named by paleontologist R. Coria in 2001; the type species is Q. curriei.