Dryptosaurus
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| Dryptosaurus aquilunguis Marsh, 1877 |
Dryptosaurus (meaning "tearing lizard") was a genus of primitive tyrannosaur that lived in Eastern North America during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. It was 6.5 m long, 1.8 m high at the hips, and weighed about 1.2 tons. Like its relative Eotyrannus, it had relatively long arms with three clawed fingers. A famous painting of the genus by Charles R. Knight has made it one of the more widely-known dinosaurs, in spite of its poor fossil record.
[edit] Discovery
In 1866, an incomplete skeleton was found in New Jersey by E.D. Cope, who named it "Laelaps" ("storm wind", after the dog in Greek mythology that never failed to catch what it was hunting). "Laelaps" became one of the first dinosaurs found in North America, (following Hadrosaurus, Aublysodon and "Trachodon".). Subsequently, it was discovered that the name "Laelaps" had already been given to a species of mite, and O.C. Marsh changed the name in 1877 to Dryptosaurus.
Dryptosaurus was reviewed by Ken Carpenter in 1997 in light of the many different theropods discovered since Cope's day. He felt that due to some unusual features it couldn't be placed in any existing family and warranted placement in its own family, Dryptosauridae. Dryptosaurus was the only large carnivore discovered in eastern North America.
[edit] References
- Carr and Williamson (2002). "Evolution of basal Tyrannosauroidea from North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22 (3): 41A.
- Carpenter, Ken & Russell, Dale A, Donald Baird, and R. Denton (1997). "Redescription of the holotype of Dryptosaurus aquilunguis (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of New Jersey.". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17 (3): 561-573.
