Rugops

Rugops (meaning 'wrinkle face') is a monospecific genus of basal abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage, approximately 95 million years ago) in what is now the Echkar Formation in Niger. The type and only species, Rugops primus, is known only from a partial skull. It was named and described in 2004 by Paul Sereno, Jeffery Wilson and Jack Conrad. Rugops has an estimated length of and weight of . The top of its skull bears several pits which correlates with overlaying scale and the front of the snout would have had an armour-like dermis.

==Discovery and naming== thumb|left|260px|Skeletal diagram of the holotype and only known specimen: MNN IGU1 In 2000, an expedition conducted by the University of Chicago led by American paleontologist Paul Sereno and funded by the National Geographic Society explored fossiliferous sandstone outcrops in a site near In-Abangharit on the western edge of the Ténéré Desert of Niger. These layers belong to the Echkar Formation, which dates to the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, around 96 million years ago. During the expedition, a partial skull of a theropod was collected. This skull was then transported to the University of Chicago for study and preparation before being returned to the Musee National du Niger and deposited under the catalog number MNN IGU1. The specimen consists of a partial skull which lacks portions of the palate and skull roof. The type specimen may represent a subadult individual based on its small size, the lack of fusion between the nasals and the presence of the fenestra between the prefrontal, frontal, postorbital and lacrimal bones.