Allosauroid _Abelisaurus_???

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:

> A DEFINITIVE ABELISAURID THEROPOD DINOSAUR FROM THE EARLY LATE CRETACEOUS OF
> PATAGONIA. MATTHEW C. LAMANNA, RUBÉN D. MARTÍNEZ, and JOSHUA B. SMITH, pages
> 58–69.

Wow! From the abstract:
"_Abelisaurus_ shares apomorphic characters with Carnotaurinae, but many
of these characters are also found in the carcharodontosaurid allosauroid
_Giganotosaurus_. As it is known only from cranial material lacking
carnotaurine synapomorphies, _Abelisaurus _may represent a late-surviving
carcharodontosaurid derivative."

I can't read the paper, but it looks like they are suggesting that
_Abelisaurus_ is not a ceratosaur at all, but a carcharodontosaurine!
(Or carcharodontosaurid, depending on your taxonomic preference.) This
would have some pretty profound implications for ceratosaurian taxonomy.
(Like the abandonment of _Abelisauria_ and _Abelisauroidea_ -- what would
we even call these critters? And how many abelisaurs would _Abelisaurus_
"take with it" into _Carcharodontosaurinae/idae_?)

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