Kryptops Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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Skeletal diagram showing the holotype maxilla of the upper jaw in place; the postcrania is based on remains that cannot be confidently attributed to the animal, possibly belonging to an allosauroid. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Family: | †Abelisauridae |
Genus: | †Kryptops Sereno & Brusatte, 2008 |
Type species | |
†Kryptops palaios Sereno & Brusatte, 2008
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Kryptops is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Niger. It is known from a partial skeleton found at the Gadoufaoua locality in the western Ténéré Desert, in rocks of the Aptian–Albian-age Elrhaz Formation. This dinosaur was described by paleontologists Paul Sereno and Stephen Brusatte in 2008. The genus name means "covered face", in reference to evidence that the face bore a tightly adhering covering. The type species is K. palaios, which means "old".