Proceratosaurus
Name:
Proceratosaurus
(Before Ceratosaurus).
Phonetic: Pro-se-rat-o-sore-us.
Named By: Friedrich von Huene - 1926.
Synonyms: Megalosaurus bradleyi.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannosauroidea,
Proceratosauridae.
Species: P. bradleyi (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: 3 meters long.
Known locations: England, Gloucestershire,
Minchinhampton.
Time period: Bathonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial fragmentary skull.
Proceratosaurus
was a small predatory theropod dinosaur active in what would become
southern England during the mid-Jurassic. Arthur Smith Woodward first
described the partial skull of Proceratosaurus as
another species of
Megalosaurus,
a genus that suffered from the
wastebasket taxon effect
of almost any predatory dinosaur fossil being attributed to it.
Friedrich von Huene split the skull from Megalosaurus
and gave it its
current name due to the nasal horn that was similar to the better
preserved Ceratosaurus
from North America. Proceratosaurus was
thought to have been the ancestor to Ceratosaurus,
and both were
placed within the Coelurosauria group.
The
above held true until the realisation that Ceratosaurus
was not a
member of the Coelurosauria in 1980. This immediately meant that
Proceratosaurus could not be the ancestor to
Ceratosaurus because of
its own coelurosaurian features. The discovery also resulted in
Proceratosaurus being looked at again to see if is
really should be
placed within the Coelurosauria.
Initially
Proceratosaurus had an uncertain position and was
briefly considered as
a primitive allosaurid. However further studies would continue,
resulting in Proceratosaurus being tentatively
placed within the
Coelurosauria in 2004 by Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. However a
further study in 2010 by Oliver Rauhat et al. would have even
further implications for the future of Proceratosaurus.
Not only was
Proceratosaurus confirmed as a coelurosaurid, it
was even identified
as a tyrannosaurid, something that resulted in the creation of the
Proceratosauridae. This is the family group that sits within the
Tyrannosauroidea and includes all theropods closer to Proceratosaurus
than Tyrannosaurus.
Although
some have questioned the above lineage, if it is correct then
Proceratosaurus, or a dinosaur very much like it,
would go down as
the distant ancestor to the tyrannosaurids instead of other dinosaurs
such as Guanlong
and Stokesosaurus
which previously held the title.
To clarify matters this would mean that Proceratosaurus
was the
dinosaur that would go on to produce the giant tyrannosaurid predators
of the late Cretaceous including,Daspletosaurus,
Alioramus,
Yutyrannus
Gorgosaurus,
and most famous of all, Tyrannosaurus.
Further reading
- On several known and unknown reptiles of the order Saurischia from
England and France. - Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 9
17:473-489. - F. von Huene - 1926.
- Cranial osteology and phylogenetic position of the theropod dinosaur
Proceratosaurus bradleyi (Woodward, 1910) from the
Middle Jurassic of
England. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. - O. W. M.
rauhut, A. C. Milner & S. Moore-Fay - 2010.
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