Tanycolagreus
Name:
Tanycolagreus
(Long limb hunter).
Phonetic: Tan-e-coe-lag-ree-us.
Named By: Carpenter, Miles & Cloward
- 2005.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannosauroidea,
Coeluridae.
Species: T. topwilsoni (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: About 3.3 meters for the holotype which is a
subadult, Fully grown adults probably up to about 4 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Morrison
Formation.
Time period: Oxfordian to Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Incomplete skull, and
almost complete post cranial remains, of a sub adult specimen.
Tanycolagreus
has been dubbed a run of the mill kind of Jurassic predator. Small
and lightweight, Tanycolagreus probably focused
its attentions on
hunting smaller dinosaurs that were too difficult for larger predators
to live on. However the holotype specimen is of a three meter
subadult, with further referred material indicating a size
approaching at least four meters long. With this in mind it may be
that Tanycolagreus was not restricted to hunting
just smaller dinosaurs.
A
premaxilla that was originally referred to Stokesosaurus
has since been
attributed to Tanycolagreus, although some
palaeontologists have
drawn comparisons between these two dinosaurs with the suggestion that
they may be synonymous. Both are of similar size and build, and
since the holotype and most complete specimen is of a sub adult,
the true adult form may in fact be closer. Also Stokesosaurus
is
known from incomplete material making proper comparison between it and
Tanycolagreus difficult.
Further reading
- Ornitholestes hermanni, a new compsognathoid
dinosaur from the Upper
Jurassic. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 19(12):
459–464. - Henry Fairfield Osborn - 1903.
- New skeleton of Coelurus fragilis from the
Morrison Formation of
Wyoming. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(3): 64A - C. A. Miles,
K. Carpenter & K. C. Cloward - 1998.
- New small theropod from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of
Wyoming. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs. - Indiana University Press,
Bloomington 23-48 - K. Carpenter, C. A. Miles & K. C. Cloward -
2005.
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