| Kakuru | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Skeletal diagram showing known bones | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Maniraptora |
| Genus: | †Kakuru Molnar & Pledge, 1980 |
| Type species | |
| †Kakuru kujani Molnar & Pledge, 1980 | |
Kakuru is adubiousgenus oftheropoddinosaur from theEarly Cretaceous ofAustralia.
The only described species,Kakuru kujani, is known primarily from evidence of a singletibia, which had been fossilised through a rare process in which the bone throughhydration turned toopal. The bone was dug up at theopal fields ofAndamooka,South Australia. The opalised tibia was exhibited by a gem shop in 1973 and by chance brought to the attention of paleontologistNeville Pledge. The owner at the time, a certain A. Fleming, allowed pictures and two casts to be made but eventually the specimen was sold at an auction to an anonymous buyer. It was presumed lost to science. In 2004, however, theSouth Australian Museum succeeded in procuring the fossil for $22,000.[1]
Kakuru was formally named in 1980 by Pledge andRalph Molnar.[2] Thetype species isKakuru kujani. The generic name is the name of theRainbow Serpent ofAustralian Aboriginal mythology in theKuyani language, and thespecific name honors theKuyani themselves.[2][3]
The holotype isSAMA P17926. This specimen number was originally assigned to one of the casts,[2] but is currently assigned to the actual specimen after acquisition.[4] The specimen was discovered in the marineBulldog Shale of theMarree Subgroup, dating to the lateAptian.[4] Apart from the tibia, the find included some small probable fibula fragments. Later a foot digit was referred that might have come from the same species, specimen SAM P18010, but the assignment is dubious. The tibia is broken into about ten larger pieces and roughly 33 centimetres long. It is very slender in build and shows the impression of the ascending process of theastragalus, an ankle bone itself lost. The process seems to have been very long and narrow.[2]
Due to the paucity of the remains it has been difficult to establish thephylogenetic position ofKakuru. In 1980, Molnar and Pledge gave no more precise determination than aTheropodaincertae sedis, though considered it as a probablecoelurosaurian.[2] In 2005, paleontologist Oliver Rauhut consideredKakuru as a potentialabelisauroid based on the flattened distal tibia (anterior side).[5] Two separate analyses in 2010 found the holotype tibia ofKakuru to have no distinguishing characteristics and could only be confidently placed in eitherAverostra orTetanurae.[6][7] A 2025 study suggested thatKakuru is similar to the probableunenlagiine specimen (NMV P257601) from Australia and to other coelurosaurians, and that this taxon can be at least referred toManiraptora.[8]
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