Noasaurid theropod (Abelisauria) femur from the Upper Cretaceous Bauru Group in Triangulo Mineiro (Southeastern Brazil)

A new record of noasaurid theropod (Dinosauria, Abelisauria) is here described and compared, including the description of its microstructure. It consists of an almost complete femur of small size (132 trim of preserved length) discovered in 2014 in a new locality at Campina Verde Municipality, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The new locality is named Fazenda Seis Irmaos-Grotas and has also provided thousands of ostracods, few fish remains, and a partial skeleton of an indeterminate baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian. The bearing-fossil sedimentary sequence is referred to the Adamantina Formation (Bauru Group, Bauru Basin). The femur here presented represents the second putative occurrence of an unusual small-sized noasaurid abelisaur for the Upper Cretaceous Bauru Group104CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE MINAS GERAIS - FAPEMIGnão temnão temWe especially thank Amarildo Martins Queiroz who showed us several outcrops in the Campina Verde municipality. The continuous support of all the staff of the Complexo Cultural e Cientifico de Peirópolis (CCCP) of the Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM, Uberaba, Minas Gerais) was essential to carry out excavations at Campina Verde municipality. We also thank the field work, laboratory assistance and discussions with Francisco Macedo Neto, Carlos Humberto da Silva, Aluísio Humberto da Silva, Rodrigo Humberto da Silva, Omilton Ribela, Fabiano Isa de Morais, Ivaldo Santos da Silva, João Ismael da Silva, Pedro Henrique Fonseca, Julian Cristian Gonçalves Silva Junior, Federico Agnolin, Marina Bento Soares and Cesar L. Schultz. This contribution was partially financed by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil), the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG, Brazil) and the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina). We are grateful with Matthew Carrano and Oliver Rauhut who help us with photographs of the femur of Masiakasaurus and Elaphosaurus, respectively, used in Fig. 4. Finally, we especially thank the reviewers Steve Brusatte, Ariel Méndez and the Editor-in-Chief Eduardo Koutsoukos for comments that greatly improved the M