Siamotyrannus

Filozoa

Siamotyrannus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 135 Ma
Illustration of the pelvic bones and tail vertebrae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Node: Avetheropoda
Infraorder: Carnosauria
Genus: Siamotyrannus
Buffetaut, Suteethorn & Tong, 1996
Species: S. isanensis
Buffetaut et al., 1996

Siamotyrannus (meaning "Siamese Tyrant") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian). It is known from a partial skeleton which includes part of the pelvis, the sacrum, and a number of vertebrae. The fossils were found in 1993 by Somchai Traimwichanon in the Sao Khua Formation of northeastern Thailand.[1] As evidenced by its name, it was originally thought to be a tyrannosauroid, though due to lacking some of the primary tyrannosauroid synapomorphies that define the clade, its position here is not certain.[2] Some analyses have categorized Siamotyrannus as a primitive carnosaur rather than a basal tyrannosauroid, and it has several features that may determine it to be an allosaurid or a sinraptorid. Little is known of the appearance of the animal, though the known elements suggest it was approximately 6.5 meters long.[3]

References

  1. ^ Buffetaut, E., Suteethorn, V. and Tong, H. 1996. The earliest known tyrannosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Thailand. Nature 381: 689-691.
  2. ^ Rauhut, Oliver W. M. Special Papers in Palaeontology: The Interrelationships and Evolution of Basal Theropod Dinosaurs (No. 69). The Palaeontological Association: 2003
  3. ^ Holtz, Thomas R. et al. (2004). "Basal Tetanurae." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 101. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.