PBDB Taxon

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Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Majungasaurus

Reptilia - Abelisauridae

Taxonomy

Majungasaurus was named by Lavocat (1955). It was considered monophyletic by Krause et al. (2007).

It was considered a nomen dubium by Sampson et al. (1996); it was considered a nomen dubium by Sampson et al. (1998).

It was assigned to Theropoda by Lavocat (1955); to Dinodontidae by Huene (1959); to Deinodontidae by Tatarinov (1964); to Tyrannosauridae by Romer (1966); to Megalosaurinidae by Steel (1970), Molnar (1980) and Carroll (1988); to Neoceratosauria by Tykoski and Rowe (2004); to Carnotaurinae by Canale et al. (2008) and Ezcurra et al. (2010); to Majungasaurini by Delcourt (2018); to Abelisauridae by Bonaparte (1991), Krause and Dodson (1994), Sampson et al. (1996), Russell (1996), Sampson et al. (1996), Rowe et al. (1997), Novas (1997), Sereno (1997), Prasad and Sahni (1999), Sampson and Witmer (2007), Krause et al. (2007), Smith (2007), Carrano and Sampson (2008), Sereno et al. (2008), Maganuco et al. (2008), Ezcurra (2009), Prasad and Sahni (2009), Bell (2010), Smith et al. (2010), Novas et al. (2010), Agnolin and Chiarelli (2010), Paulina Carabajal (2011), Ruiz et al. (2011), Carrano et al. (2012), Prasad (2012), Paulina Carabajal and Currie (2012), Burch and Carrano (2012), Novas et al. (2013), Hendrickx and Mateus (2014), Gianechini et al. (2015), Ratsinbaholison et al. (2016) and Brougham et al. (2019); and to Majungasaurinae by Tortosa et al. (2014), Filippi et al. (2016) and Khosla (2021).

Species

M. crenatissimus (syn. Majungatholus atopus)

Synonyms

Majungatholus was named by Sues and Taquet (1979). Its type is Majungatholus atopus.

It was synonymized subjectively with Majungasaurus by Krause et al. (2007) and Sampson and Witmer (2007).

It was assigned to Pachycephalosauria by Maryanska and Osmólska (1985); to Pachycephalosauridae by Sues and Taquet (1979), Sues (1980), Taquet (1984), Bonaparte (1986), Sues and Galton (1987), Carroll (1988), Maryanska (1990), Le Loeuff (1991), Olshevsky and Ford (1994) and Jacobs et al. (1996); to Carnotaurinae by Lamanna et al. (2002), Sereno et al. (2004), Tykoski and Rowe (2004), Juárez Valieri and Fiorelli (2004) and Juárez Valieri et al. (2007); and to Abelisauridae by Sampson et al. (1998), Carrano et al. (2002), Rauhut (2003), Smith and Krause (2003), Novas et al. (2004), Coria et al. (2006), Sullivan (2006) and Prasad and Sahni (2009).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1955	Majungasaurus Lavocat
1959	Majungasaurus Huene p. 122
1964	Majungasaurus Tatarinov p. 540
1966	Majungasaurus Romer p. 369
1970	Majungasaurus Steel p. 33
1979	Majungatholus Sues and Taquet
1980	Majungasaurus Molnar p. 139
1980	Majungatholus Sues
1984	Majungatholus Taquet p. 79
1985	Majungatholus Maryanska and Osmólska p. 146
1986	Majungatholus Bonaparte p. 91
1987	Majungatholus Sues and Galton
1988	Majungasaurus Carroll
1988	Majungatholus Carroll
1990	Majungatholus Maryanska p. 566
1991	Majungasaurus Bonaparte p. 2
1991	Majungatholus Le Loeuff p. 105
1994	Majungasaurus Krause and Dodson p. 32A
1994	Majungatholus Olshevsky and Ford p. 91
1996	Majungatholus Jacobs et al. p. 605
1996	Majungasaurus Russell p. 374
1996	Majungasaurus Sampson et al.
1997	Majungasaurus Novas p. 1
1997	Majungasaurus Rowe et al. p. 109
1997	Majungasaurus Sereno p. 456
1998	Majungatholus Sampson et al. p. 1048
1999	Majungasaurus Prasad and Sahni p. 382
2002	Majungatholus Carrano et al.
2002	Majungatholus Lamanna et al. p. 63
2003	Majungatholus Rauhut p. 33
2003	Majungatholus Smith and Krause p. 99A
2004	Majungatholus Juárez Valieri and Fiorelli p. 36
2004	Majungatholus Novas et al. p. 68
2004	Majungatholus Sereno et al. p. 1329 fig. 4
2004	Majungatholus Tykoski and Rowe p. 49
2004	Majungasaurus Tykoski and Rowe p. 50
2006	Majungatholus Coria et al. p. 1287
2006	Majungatholus Sullivan p. 361
2007	Majungatholus Juárez Valieri et al. p. 62
2007	Majungasaurus Krause et al. p. 2
2007	Majungasaurus Sampson and Witmer p. 38
2007	Majungasaurus Smith p. 105
2008	Majungasaurus Canale et al.
2008	Majungasaurus Carrano and Sampson pp. 199-200 fig. 4
2008	Majungasaurus Maganuco et al. pp. 239-240
2008	Majungasaurus Sereno et al. p. 4
2009	Majungasaurus Ezcurra p. 1340
2009	Majungasaurus Prasad and Sahni p. 372
2009	Majungatholus Prasad and Sahni p. 372
2010	Majungasaurus Agnolin and Chiarelli p. 298
2010	Majungasaurus Bell p. 1263
2010	Majungasaurus Ezcurra et al. p. 14 fig. 8
2010	Majungasaurus Novas et al. p. 48
2010	Majungasaurus Smith et al. p. 929
2011	Majungasaurus Paulina Carabajal p. 793
2011	Majungasaurus Ruiz et al. p. 1271
2012	Majungasaurus Burch and Carrano p. 2
2012	Majungasaurus Carrano et al. p. 234
2012	Majungasaurus Paulina Carabajal and Currie p. 96
2012	Majungasaurus Prasad p. 603
2013	Majungasaurus Novas et al. p. 183
2014	Majungasaurus Hendrickx and Mateus
2014	Majungasaurus Tortosa et al. p. 71
2015	Majungasaurus Gianechini et al.
2016	Majungasaurus Filippi et al. p. 217 fig. 9
2016	Majungasaurus Ratsinbaholison et al. p. 282
2018	Majungasaurus Delcourt p. 3
2019	Majungasaurus Brougham et al. p. 13
2021	Mahajungasaurus Khosla p. 1437

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
—	Sauropsida
class	Reptilia
subclass	Eureptilia	()
—	Romeriida

Rank	Name	Author
—	Diapsida	()
—	Archosauromorpha	(Huene 1946)
—	Crocopoda
—	Archosauriformes	Gauthier 1986
—	Eucrocopoda
—	Archosauria	()
informal	Avemetatarsalia
—	Ornithodira
—	Dinosauromorpha
—	Dinosauriformes
—	Dinosauria	()
—	Theropoda	()
—	Neotheropoda
—	Averostra	Paul 2002
suborder	Ceratosauria	()
superfamily	Abelisauroidea
family	Abelisauridae
subfamily	Carnotaurinae
tribe	Majungasaurini	()
genus	Majungasaurus

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Majungasaurus Lavocat 1955

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†Majungasaurus crenatissimus Depéret 1896

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Invalid names: Majungatholus atopus Sues and Taquet 1979 [synonym]

Invalid names: Majungatholus Sues and Taquet 1979 [synonym]

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
D. W. Krause et al. 2007	Abelisaurid theropod with: (1) dorsoventrally deep, fused nasals that are strongly pneumatized via large, bilateral foramina; (2) nasal processes of left and right premaxillae separated by a thin lamina of nasal; (3) maxilla bearing 17 alveoli; (4) frontals rounded rostrally rather than forming a double notch; (5) frontals with a sculptured, median cornual process in adults that is variably pneumatic; (6) pronounced median fossa on sagittal (frontoparietal) crest; (7) dentary bearing 17 alveoli, virtually no extension caudal to last alveolus, and ventral position of lateral sulcus; (8) teeth bearing weakly developed interdenticular sulci; (9) long, falciform atlantal epipophysis; (10) vertebral centra in cranial dorsal series with dorsoventrally elongate articular surfaces; (11) cranial and caudal borders of mid-cervical transverse processes parallel in lateral view; (12) dorsal and caudal vertebral neural spines dorsally expanded (transversely and craniocaudally); and (13) cervical ribs pneumatized via multiple, enlarged foramina on medial surface of shaft, and accessory foramina on cranial and caudal surfaces of capitulotubercular web.

Measurements

No measurements are available

Composition:

hydroxyapatiteo

Entire body:

yesg

Adult length:

10 to < 100o

Adult width:

1.0 to < 10o

Adult height:

1.0 to < 10o

Maximum body mass:

300 kgg

Minimum body mass:

100 kgg

Architecture:

compact or denseo

Ontogeny:

accretion, modification of partso

Grouping:

solitaryo

Environment:

terrestrialo

Locomotion:

actively mobileo

Life habit:

ground dwellingo

Diet:

carnivoreo

Reproduction:

oviparouso

Dispersal:

direct/internalo

Dispersal 2:

mobileo

Created:

2005-08-25 05:50:53

Modified:

2005-08-25 07:50:53

Source: g = genus, o = order

References: Marsh 1875, Peczkis 1995

Age range: Maastrichtian or 72.10000 to 66.00000 Ma

Collections (25 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Maastrichtian	72.1 - 66.0	Madagascar (Mahajanga)	M. crenatissimus (32366 55268 55270 55271 70075 84840 84841 84842 84843 84844 84845 84846 84847 84848 85063 91206 144728 206553) Majungatholus atopus (25074 39265 48389 71399) Megalosaurus crenatissimus (59692) Megalosaurus sp. (51252) Theropoda indet. (102481)