Abelisaurids are a largely Gondwanan story: the family is known overwhelmingly from South America, Africa, India, and Madagascar, filling the apex-predator role that tyrannosaurids held in the north. Their skulls are unusually short and deep for a large theropod, often carrying horns, bosses, or rugose ornamentation, while their forelimbs are reduced to a degree that rivals or exceeds even Tyrannosaurus -- tiny, largely functionless arms on an otherwise powerfully built hunter.
Carnotaurus, from Argentina, is the family's most recognizable member, instantly identifiable by the pair of horns above its eyes and skin impressions showing a scaly, hornless-plate-free hide. Majungasaurus, from Madagascar, is notable for direct fossil evidence of cannibalism among its own species. Jose Bonaparte's fieldwork across Patagonia was central to establishing Abelisauridae as a distinct family in the first place.