Compsosuchus (meaning "elegant crocodile") is a dubious genus of abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Lameta Formation of India.
Discovery and naming Compsosuchus was described in 1933 by von Huene and Matley based on remains discovered between 1917 and 1919.F. v. Huene and C. A. Matley, (1933), "The Cretaceous Saurischia and Ornithischia of the Central Provinces of India", Palaeontologica Indica (New Series), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India 21(1): 1-74 The type species is C. solus, and the type and only specimen is GSI K27/578, an axis with an articulated axial intersection. The genus is often considered a nomen dubium.
Classification Although classified as an allosaurid by von Huene and Matley (1933) and Molnar et al. (1990) because of superficial similarities with the axis vertebrae of Allosaurus, a 2004 review of Lameta Formation theropods found it to be similar to members of the Abelisauridae, including Carnotaurus and Indosaurus, necessitating the placement of Compsosuchus as an abelisaurid.Molnar, Kurzanov and Dong, 1990. Carnosauria. In Weishampel, Dodson and Osmolska (eds.). The Dinosauria. University of California Press. 169-209. While a 2011 study classified Compsosuchus as a noasaurid, a 2024 study identified it as an indeterminate abelisaurid.
See also
Timeline of ceratosaur research
References