''Kurupi'' is a genus of

abelisaurid Abelisauridae (meaning "Abel's lizards") is a family (or clade) of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs. Abelisaurids thrived during the Cretaceous period, on the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and today their fossil remains are found ...

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous

Marília Formation The Marília Formation is a geological formation in Minas Gerais state of southeastern Brazil. Its strata date back to the Maastrichtian, and are part of the Bauru Group. The fossil-bearing Serra da Galga and Ponte Alta members were originally tho ...

of Brazil. The type and only species is ''Kurupi itaata''. It is so named because its remains were found near a

love hotel A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities. The name originates from "Hotel Love" in Osaka, which was built in 1968 and had a rotating s ...

Etymology

The generic name is named for

Kurupi Kurupira is a figure in Guaraní mythology. He is one of the seven monstrous children of Tau and Kerana, and as such is one of the central legendary figures in the region of Guaraní speaking cultures. He is also one of the few figures still promi ...

, a god of fertility and sex from

Guaraní mythology The Tupi-Guarani mythology is the set of narratives about the gods and spirits of the different Tupi-Guarani peoples, ancient and current. Together with the cosmogonies, anthropogonies and rituals, they form part of the religion of these peoples ...

. According to the authors, "The choice of the name is due to the fact that the fossils were found in the region of “Motel Paraíso” (“Paradise Motel”), a place intended for intimate encounters." The specific name is derived from the

Tupi language Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi (also spelled as Tupí) is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the aboriginal Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. It belongs to the ...

and has two roots: ''ita'', meaning hard, and ''atã'', meaning rock. This name is in reference to the cemented rocks of the Monte Alto region. Together, the generic and specific name can be translated as ''rock-hard Kurupi'', or ''rock-hard god of sex''.

Description

The holotype, MPMA 27-0001/02, consists of three caudal vertebrae and a partial pelvic girdle. The authors estimate that the animal was long. It would have been a

cursorial A cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. An animal can be considered cursorial if it has the ability to run fast (e.g. cheetah) or if it can keep a constant speed for a long distance (high endurance). "Cursorial" is often u ...

, stiff-tailed hunter.

Classification

The describers assign ''Kurupi'' to the

Abelisauridae Abelisauridae (meaning "Abel's lizards") is a family (or clade) of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs. Abelisaurids thrived during the Cretaceous period, on the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and today their fossil remains are found ...

, but its precise relationships are uncertain because a

phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

only generates a massive

polytomy An internal node of a phylogenetic tree is described as a polytomy or multifurcation if (i) it is in a rooted tree and is linked to three or more child subtrees or (ii) it is in an unrooted tree and is attached to four or more branches. A tr ...

of abelisaurids more derived than ''

Spectrovenator ''Spectrovenator'' ("ghost hunter", named because the holotype was unexpectedly found under the holotype of ''Tapuiasaurus'') is a genus of basal abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous period in what is now Brazil. ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q108418977 Abelisaurids Maastrichtian life Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of South America Cretaceous Brazil Fossil taxa described in 2021