Kryptops
Sereno and Brusatte 2008
Etymology
Visage couvert, du Grec ''krypto'', couvert et ''ops'' , visage, en référence à la surface du maxillaire couverte de petits trous et d’empreintes de vaisseaux sanguins, indiquant que du vivant de l’animal, l’os était recouvert par des tissus mous fortement kératinisés.
Kryptops is an extinct genus of possibly chimeric abelisaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of Niger. It is known from a partial maxilla found at the Gadoufaoua locality in the western Ténéré Desert, in rocks of the Aptian–Albian-age Elrhaz Formation. The fossils were collected in 2000 by a University of Chicago expedition to Niger led by American paleontologist Paul Sereno. They were then described in 2008 by Sereno and Steve Brusatte. The genus contains a single species, Kryptops palaios. Sereno and Brusatte referred several postcranial remains to Kryptops, but later studies have shown that these elements belong to an allosauroid theropod, leaving Kryptops to be only known from the incomplete maxilla.
Carnivore
Ground dwelling, solitary
Terrestrial