Liliensternus
Name:
Liliensternus
(R�hle von Lilienstern's one).
Phonetic: Lil-e-en-ster-nus.
Named By: Samuel Paul Welles - 1984.
Synonyms: Halticosaurus liliensterni.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Coelophysoidea.
Species: L. liliensterni
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: 5.15 meters long.
Known locations: Germany - Trossingen Formation.
Time period: Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and post
cranial remains of at least two individuals.
The
Liliensternus holotype was originally described in
1934 as a
species of Halticosaurus
by Friedrich von Huene. However a later
palaeontologist named Samuel Paul Welles concluded that this species
was actually different beyond the species level and created the genus
of Liliensternus for it instead. Further
complication to the history
of the genus comes from the creation of another new species from
France. Named Liliensternus airelensis, this
species has since been
renamed as the genus Lophostropheus.
At
over five meters long Liliensternus was a large
theropod dinosaur for
the late Triassic. With its size it’s very probable that
Liliensternus hunted sauropodomorph dinosaurs (the
ancestors of the
massive sauropods) like Plateosaurus, although
smaller theropod
dinosaurs might have also been taken. Liliensternus
is usually
depicted with a crested snout similar to that of the later Dilophosaurus
of the Jurassic.
Further reading
- Dilophosaurus wetherilli (Dinosauria, Theropoda):
osteology and
comparisons. - Palaeontographica Abteilung A 185:85-180. - S. P. Welles
- 1984.
- The coelophysoid Lophostropheus airelensis, gen.
nov.: a review of
the systematics of "Liliensternus" airelensis
from the
Triassic-Jurassic boundary outcrops of Normandy (France). - Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology, 27(1): 73-86. - Martin D. Ezcurra &
Gilles Cuny - 2007.
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