A new carcharodontosaurian theropod (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Thailand

The isolated fossil remains of an allosauroid theropod from the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation of Khorat, Thailand, are described in this study. Detailed observations support the establishment of a new allosauroid, Siamraptor suwati gen. et sp. nov. This new taxon is based on a composite cranial and postcranial skeleton comprising premaxilla, maxilla, jugal, surangular, prearticular, articular, vertebrae, manual ungual, ischium, tibia, and pedal phalanx. It is distinguished from other allosauroids by characters such as a jugal with straight ventral margin and dorsoventrally deep anterior process below the orbit, a surangular with a deep oval concavity at the posterior end of the lateral shelf and four posterior surangular foramina, a long and narrow groove along the suture between the surangular and the prearticular, an articular with a foramen at the notch of the suture with the prearticular, an anterior cervical vertebra with a pneumatic foramen (so-called ‘pleurocoel’) excavating parapophysis, and cervical and posterior dorsal vertebrae penetrated by a pair of small foramina bilaterally at the base of the neural spine. The presence of a huge number of camerae and pneumatopores in cranial and axial elements reveals a remarkable skeletal pneumatic system in this new taxon. Moreover, the phylogenetic analyses revealed that Siamraptor is a basal taxon of Carcharodontosauria, involving a new sight of the paleobiogeographical context of this group. Siamraptor is the best preserved carcharodontosaurian theropod in Southeast Asia, and it sheds new light on the early evolutionary history of Carcharodontosauria.