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| Kakuru Temporal range: Aptian ~ | |
|---|---|
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| Skeletal diagram showing known bones | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Tetanurae |
| Genus: | † Kakuru Molnar & Pledge, 1980 |
| Type species | |
| †Kakuru kujani Molnar & Pledge, 1980 | |
Kakuru is a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period.
The only described species, Kakuru kujani, is known primarily from evidence of a single tibia, which had been fossilised through a rare process in which the bone through hydration turned to opal. The bone was dug up at the opal fields of Andamooka, South Australia. The opalised tibia was exhibited by a gem shop in 1973 and by chance brought to the attention of paleontologist Neville Pledge. The owner at the time, a certain A. Fleming, allowed pictures and two casts to be made but eventually the specimen was sold at an auction to an anonymous buyer. It was presumed lost to science. In 2004, however, the South Australian Museum succeeded in procuring the fossil for $22,000. [1]
Kakuru was formally named in 1980 by Pledge and Ralph Molnar. [2] The type species is Kakuru kujani. The generic name is that of a Rainbow Serpent of Australian Aboriginal mythology. The specific name is that of the local aboriginal tribe, the Kujani or Guyani.
One of the casts is the plastoholotype, SAM P17926. The specimen was discovered in the marine Bulldog Shale of the Marree Subgroup, dating to the Aptian. Apart from the tibia, the find included some small probable fibula fragments. Later a foot digit was referred that might have come from the same species, specimen SAM P18010, but the assignment is dubious. The tibia is broken into about ten larger pieces and roughly 33 centimetres long. It is very slender in build and shows the impression of the ascending process of the astragalus, an ankle bone itself lost. The process seems to have been very long and narrow.
Kakuru is believed to have been carnivorous, was bipedal and about two to three meters in length. This small dinosaur seems to have had long, slender legs.
Due to the paucity of the remains it has been difficult to establish the phylogenetic position of Kakuru. Molnar and Pledge gave no more precise determination than a Theropoda incertae sedis . The tibia provides two indications: its gracile form and the tall height and narrow width of the astragalar process. Both seems to point to the Coelurosauria, perhaps the Oviraptorosauria. However, in 2005 Oliver Rauhut pointed out that the Abelisauroidea also have a high ascending process of the astragalus. Two separate analyses in 2010 found the holotype tibia of Kakuru to have no distinguishing characteristics and could only be confidently placed in either Averostra or Tetanurae. [3] [4]
Serendipaceratops is a genus of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur, possibly an ankylosaur, from the early Cretaceous Period of Australia. The type species, S. arthurcclarkei, was named in 2003.
Minmi is a genus of small herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous Period of Australia, about 120 to 112 million years ago.
Elaphrosaurus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 154 to 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. Elaphrosaurus was a medium-sized but lightly built member of the group that could grow up to 6.2 m (20 ft) long. Morphologically, this dinosaur is significant in two ways. Firstly, it has a relatively long body but is very shallow-chested for a theropod of its size. Secondly, it has very short hindlimbs in comparison with its body. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that this genus is likely a ceratosaur. Earlier suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been examined but generally dismissed. Elaphrosaurus is currently believed to be a very close relative of Limusaurus, an unusual beaked ceratosaurian which may have been either herbivorous or omnivorous.
Ozraptor is a genus of possibly abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) Colalura Sandstone of Australia, known from fragmentary remains.
Xinjiangovenator is a genus of coelurosaurian dinosaurs, possibly part of the group Maniraptora, which lived during the Early Cretaceous period, sometime between the Valanginian and Albian stages. The remains of Xinjiangovenator were found in the Lianmuqin Formation of Wuerho, Xinjiang, China, and were first described by Dong Zhiming in 1973. The genus is based on a single specimen, an articulated partial right lower leg, containing the tibia, three pieces of the fibula, the calcaneum and the astragalus. This specimen, IVPP V4024-2, is the holotype of the genus.
Velocisaurus is a genus of noasaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of Argentina.
Ornithomimidae is an extinct family of theropod dinosaurs which bore a superficial resemblance to modern ostriches. Ornithomimids were fast, omnivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs known mainly from the Late Cretaceous Period of Laurasia, though they have also been reported from the Lower Cretaceous Wonthaggi Formation of Australia.
Calamosaurus was a genus of small theropod dinosaur from the Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, England. It is based on two cervical vertebrae, collected by Reverend William Fox.
Walgettosuchus is a dubious or possibly invalid genus of extinct tetanuran theropod dinosaur that lived in Australia during the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). It is known from a single caudal vertebra.
Rapator is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Griman Creek Formation of New South Wales, Australia, dating to the Cenomanian age of the Cretaceous period. It contains only the type species, Rapator ornitholestoides, which was originally named by Friedrich von Huene in 1932.
Fulgurotherium is a dubious genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Griman Creek Formation. It lived in what is now Australia.
Erectopus is an extinct genus of basal allosauroid theropod from the Early Cretaceous La Penthiève Beds Formation of France and also possibly the Cernavodă Formation of southern Romania. The type species is E. superbus, which was initially known as a species of Megalosaurus.
Ohmdenosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic epoch in what is now Germany. The only specimen – a tibia (shinbone) and ankle – was discovered in rocks of the Posidonia Shale near the village of Ohmden. The specimen, which was originally identified as a plesiosaur, is exhibited in a local museum, the Urweltmuseum Hauff. In the 1970s, it caught the attention of German palaeontologist Rupert Wild, who recognised it as the remains of a sauropod. Wild named Ohmdenosaurus in a 1978 publication; the only known species is Ohmdenosaurus liasicus.
Umoonasaurus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur belonging to the family Leptocleididae. This genus lived approximately 115 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period, in shallow seas covering parts of what is now Australia. It was a relatively small animal around 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) long. An identifying trait of Umoonasaurus is the presence of three crest-ridges on its skull.
Ralph E. Molnar is a paleontologist who had been Curator of Mammals at the Queensland Museum and more recently associated with the Museum of Northern Arizona. He is also a research associate at the Texas Natural Science Centre. He co-authored descriptions of the dinosaurs Muttaburrasaurus, Kakuru, Minmi and Ozraptor, as well as the mammal Steropodon.
Megaraptora is a clade of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs with controversial relationships to other tetanuran theropods. Its derived members, the Megaraptoridae are noted for their large hand claws and powerfully-built forelimbs, which are usually reduced in size in other large theropods.
Afromimus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Elrhaz Formation of Niger. It contains a single species, A. tenerensis, named in 2017 by Paul Sereno from parts of the right leg, vertebrae, and ribs found in the Ténéré Desert. It was originally described as a genus of ornithomimosaurian, but subsequent arguments have placed it as a taxon within or close to the superfamily Abelisauroidea.
Vayuraptor is a genus of basal coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived in the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Sao Khua Formation of Thailand. The genus contains a single species, V. nongbualamphuensis, known from a partial skeleton.
The Bulldog Shale is a formation of Early Cretaceous age that forms part of the Marree Subgroup of the Rolling Downs Group, located in the Eromanga Basin of South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
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