Eustreptospondylus
Name:
Eustreptospondylus (Well curved vertebra).
Phonetic: Yoo-strep-to-spon-di-lus.
Named By: Alick Walker - 1964.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Megalosauridae.
Species: E. oxoniensis (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Holotype about 4.6 meters long, possibly up
to 6 meters long for adults.
Known locations: England.
Time period: Callovian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Single specimen, possibly
of a juvenile.
Eustreptospondylus
was first described in 1841, but the original fossil material has
since been lost. A second set of remains was discovered in 1964
and is surmised to be Eustreptospondylus based
upon the description of
the original material. The new material features vertebra that are
lacking development of the upper parts, indicating that it was a
juvenile when it
died. Comparison to fossil material from other theropods suggests a
potential adult size of up to nine meters.
It
has been suggested that
there are only minor differences between the hips of Eustreptospondylus
and another theropod dinosaur called Magnosaurus,
and as such are the
same genus. Further support for this comes from similarity in the
dentary of the two dinosaurs, however wider consensus at the time of
writing is that they are not the same and they both represent their
individual groups.
Further reading
- Triassic reptiles from the Elgin area: Ornithosuchus and the origin
of carnosaurs. - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 248
(744): 53–134. - A. D. Walker - 1964.
- The anatomy and systematics of Eustreptospondylus oxoniensis,
a
theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Oxfordshire, England. -
Monograph of the Palaeontological Society, 160(627) 82 pp - R. Sadleir,
P. M. Barrett & H. P. Powell - 2008.
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