An abelisaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) tooth from the Lower Cretaceous Chicla formation of Libya

An isolated theropod dinosaur tooth discovered in 1984 near Nalut in northwestern Libya is the only known dinosaur record from the Aptian-Albian (Lower Cretaceous) Chicla Formation in the Jabal Nafusah region of the country. The tooth was re-examined in an effort to better ascertain its taxonomic affinities. A stepwise discriminant function analysis compared the Libyan tooth to the dentitions of 24 other theropods and classified the tooth with cranial material from the Late Cretaceous of India previously referred to the abelisaurid Indosuchus. The temporal and paleogeographic “distance” separating the Libyan specimen from “Indosuchus” indicates that the former cannot pertain to that genus. However, the results of the analysis and synapomorphies of Abelisauridae present on the Libyan crown indicate that it can be referred to the clade, thus contributing to the growing record of Abelisauridae in the Cretaceous of mainland Africa.