Afromimus tenerensis
Afromimus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Elrhaz Formation of Niger. It contains a single species, A. tenerensis, named in 2017 by Paul Sereno from parts of the right leg, vertebrae, and ribs found in the Ténéré Desert. It was originally described as a genus of ornithomimosaurian, but subsequent arguments have placed it as a taxon within or close to the superfamily Abelisauroidea.

Levi Martinez-Reza · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- AfromimusPBDB
- Diet
- herbivore, omnivorePBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
Time the record covers
At most 13 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 113.2 Mya and 100.5 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Afromimus tenerensis on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
1 occurrences- Early Cretaceous100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
1 formation
- Elrhaz Formation · Tegama Group1
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The named rock units Afromimus tenerensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Afromimus tenerensis and its relatives
Early CretaceousWhere Afromimus tenerensis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
No other named taxon is catalogued from that site.
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Afromimus tenerensis, and this reads all of them.
Entered from
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Afromimus tenerensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Levi Martinez-Reza
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Afromimus tenerensis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Afromimus”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAfromimus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sereno 2017