Theropod remains from the uppermost Cretaceous of Colombia and their implications for the palaeozoogeography of western Gondwana

Dinosaur remains from Upper Cretaceous outcrops of northern Gondwana are extremely rare, in contrast with the much richer sample of coeval beds from southern Gondwana. Dinosaur remains from the uppermost Cretaceous Ortega locality of the Upper Magdalena Basin (Maastrichtian) of the Department of Tolima, Colombia, provides new information on northern Gondwanan faunas of this time. A revision of dinosaur material from this outcrop, consisting of three theropod shed teeth, reveals the presence of two morphotypes. One of them is referred to Abelisauridae based on the presence of crowns with mesial margin with a strong curvature beginning at about the second-third of the crown height and straight to slightly concave distal margin. The second morphotype exhibits un-serrated mesial and distal margins without carinae and no constriction at the base of the crown, a combination of features only observed in unenlagiine dromaeosaurids within Theropoda. Members of these clades are also present in coeval beds of southern and central South America, Madagascar, northern Africa, and India, indicating a cosmopolitan distribution in western and central Gondwana during the Late Cretaceous. Regarding South America, abelisaurid and probably dromaeosaurid theropods are recorded across a large latitudinal area, from the Palaeo-Equator to considerably high palaeo-latitudes in Patagonia, and probably spanning quite different environmental conditions.