We report the well preserved skeleton of a small theropod dinosaur, Nqwebas
aurus thwazi, gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous Kirkwood Formatio
n of South Africa. Nqwebasaurus has an elongate three-digit manus with a pa
rtially opposable first digit, a long and slender pes with a highly reduced
metatarsal IV, and preserves gastroliths (stomach stones) in its abdominal
region. As a basal coelurosaurian, Nqwebasaurus pushes back the Gondwanan
record of this derived group of tetanuran theropods approximately 50 millio
n years. This confirms that coelurosaurians were present on the Gondwana su
percontinent well before its main phase of fragmentation and supports the h
ypothesis that this clade could have achieved a global distribution early i
n their evolution. Nqwebasaurus is one of the most complete and best preser
ved Cretaceous theropods described thus far from Africa.