| “ | The ever attendant Rugops has a weak jaw and skull. It was no killer. It was a natural born scavenger, living off the scraps of this highly efficient killer. | ” |
– Description in Lost World | ||
Rugops primus (name meaning "wrinkle face") is a genus of abelisaurid dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period in what is now north and west Africa.
Facts
Compared to the other theropods in its ecosystem, Rugops was quite a small animal. Paleontologists have recently reduced its size from 6-8 meters, it was actually 4.4 meters long. Like other abelisaurids, Rugops possessed very short arms and possibly paired dorsal crests, like other Abelisaurs. Rugops had an unusually weak skull, suggesting that it may have fed mainly on carcasses and small prey.
In Planet Dinosaur
Lost World
A Rugops was seen lingering near a Spinosaurus hunting Onchopristis in a river. When the Spinosaurus ate whatever part of the carcass it could and move away to find more Onchopristis, the Rugops moved in and fed on the half-eaten corpse. It did the same repeatedly until the Spinosaurus ate its fill and swam down the river.
Trivia
- Rugops is the first abelisaur to appear in the series.
- It also shares its model (although not its colour scheme) with one the other Abelisaurs to appear, Skorpiovenator.
- New analysis on the size of the skull show the true size of Rugops was 13 feet (4 meters).