Veterupristisaurus

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Veterupristisaurus
Temporal range: Kimmeridgian to Tithonian, Late Jurassic, 154–150  Ma
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Veterupristisaurus Skeletal Diagram.png
Skeletal diagram showing known remains
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Carcharodontosauria
Family: Carcharodontosauridae
Genus: Veterupristisaurus
Rauhut, 2011
Species:
V. milneri
Binomial name
Veterupristisaurus milneri
Rauhut, 2011
Synonyms

Veterupristisaurus is a potentially dubious extinct genus of carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur known from the Jurassic of Tendaguru, Lindi Region of southeastern Tanzania. [1]

Contents

Discovery and naming

Life restoration Veterupristisaurus milneri life restoration.jpg
Life restoration

Veterupristisaurus is known from the holotype specimen MB  R 1938, an isolated middle caudal vertebra. Two partially fused posterior middle caudal vertebrae, MB R 2166, from the same locality as the holotype, are referred to this genus and most probably came from the same individual. The anterior caudal vertebra, MB R 1940, may also represent this genus. The holotype was collected in the St (EH) locality of the Tendaguru in German East Africa, from the Middle Dinosaur Member of the Tendaguru Formation, dating to the late Kimmeridgian to earliest Tithonian faunal stage of the Late Jurassic, about 154-150  million years ago. The holotype was originally referred to Ceratosaurus? roechlingi by Werner Janensch in 1925. [2]

Veterupristisaurus was named by Oliver W. M. Rauhut in 2011 and the type species is Veterupristisaurus milneri. The generic name translates as "old shark lizard". It refers to the fact that Veterupristisaurus is currently the oldest known representative of the "shark-toothed lizards", the carcharodontosaurids. The specific name honours the paleontologist Angela C. Milner. [1]

Description

Size comparison Veterupristisaurus Size Diagram.jpg
Size comparison

Veterupristisaurus was a large bipedal animal. The length of the holotype vertebra is about 123 mm (4.8 in). Veterupristisaurus has been estimated to have been about 8 m (26 ft) in length and to have weighed 1.65 t (1.82 short tons; 1.65 t), [3] based on the more complete and closely related Acrocanthosaurus . There are teeth from Tendaguru Formation that probably come from it. [4] Whether the individual represented by the holotype represents an adult individual cannot be determined based on the available material. It is diagnosed by a spinoprezygapophyseal lamina in the middle caudal vertebrae extending anteriorly to the midwidth of the base of the prezygapophysis and being flanked laterally by a short, parallel lamina extending from the lateral margin of the prezygapophysis posteriorly. Thus, Rauhut considered a sister-group relationship between Veterupristisaurus and Acrocanthosaurus within the Carcharodontosauridae. [1] In 2025, the study that described Tameryraptor, which had Rauhut as a co-author, noted its only diagnostic character was shared with Lusovenator , making the validity of Veterupristisaurus questionable. [5]

Classification

Veterupristisaurus is generally recovered as a member of the Carcharodontosauridae [1] [6] although some studies find it to be a Carcharodontosaurian outside of Carcharodontosauridae instead. [7]

Cau (2024) found Veterupristisaurus to be a carcharodontosaurid forming a clade with Sauroniops , Lusovenator, Eocarcharia , and Concavenator .

Carcharodontosauridae
Neovenator
Neovenator.png

Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis (holotype maxilla)

Acrocanthosaurus
Acrocanthosaurus restoration.jpg

Eocarcharia (referred maxilla)

Meraxes
Meraxes gigas life restoration updated.png

Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis(referred cranial material)

Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (neotype)
Carcharodontosaurus.png

Carcharodontosaurus saharicus(described by Stromer in 1931)

Related Research Articles

<i>Acrocanthosaurus</i> Genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Acrocanthosaurus is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that existed in what is now North America during the Aptian and early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous, from 113 to 110 million years ago. Like most dinosaur genera, Acrocanthosaurus contains only a single species, A. atokensis. It had a continent-wide range, with fossil remains known from the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming in the west, and Maryland in the east.

<i>Carcharodontosaurus</i> Genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur from the Cretaceous period

Carcharodontosaurus is a genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived in Northwest Africa from about 100 to 94 million years ago during the Cenomanian age of the Cretaceous. Two teeth of the genus, now lost, were first described from Algeria by French paleontologists Charles Depéret and Justin Savornin as Megalosaurus saharicus. A partial skeleton initially referred to this genus was collected by crews of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer during a 1914 expedition to Egypt. Stromer did not report the Egyptian find until 1931, in which he dubbed the novel genus Carcharodontosaurus, making the type species C. saharicus. Although this skeleton was destroyed during the Second World War, it was subsequently redescribed as the holotype of a distinct carcharodontosaurid genus, Tameryraptor. In 1995, a nearly complete skull of C. saharicus, the first well-preserved specimen to be found in almost a century, was discovered in the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco, which was officially designated as the neotype in 2007. In the same year, fossils unearthed from the Echkar Formation of northern Niger were described and named as another species, C. iguidensis, though this species might belong to a different genus.

<i>Torvosaurus</i> Megalosaurid theropod dinosaur genus from Late Jurassic Period

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carcharodontosauridae</span> Extinct family of dinosaurs

Carcharodontosauridae is a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931, Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae as a family, which, in modern paleontology, indicates a clade within Carnosauria. Carcharodontosaurids include some of the largest land predators ever known: Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Tyrannotitan all rivaled Tyrannosaurus in size. Estimates give a maximum weight of 8–10 metric tons for the largest carcharodontosaurids, while the smallest carcharodontosaurids were estimated to have weighed at least 500 kilograms (1,100 lb).

<i>Elaphrosaurus</i> Ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur genus from the Late Jurassic Period

Elaphrosaurus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 154 to 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. Elaphrosaurus was a medium-sized but lightly built member of the group that could grow up to 6.2 m (20 ft) long. Morphologically, this dinosaur is significant in two ways. Firstly, it has a relatively long body but is very shallow-chested for a theropod of its size. Secondly, it has very short hindlimbs in comparison with its body. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that this genus is likely a ceratosaur. Earlier suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been examined but generally dismissed. Elaphrosaurus is currently believed to be a very close relative of Limusaurus, an unusual beaked ceratosaurian which may have been either herbivorous or omnivorous.

<i>Tendaguria</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Tendaguria is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Lindi Region, Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metriacanthosauridae</span> Extinct family of dinosaurs

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<i>Poekilopleuron</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

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<i>Concavenator</i> Carcharodontosaurian dinosaur genus from the Early Cretaceous period

Concavenator is a genus of carcharodontosaurian dinosaur that lived in Spain during the Early Cretaceous epoch, about 125 million years ago. The genus contains a single species, Concavenator corcovatus named and described in 2010 from a nearly complete skeleton collected from Las Hoyas fossil site of La Huérguina Formation.

<i>Ostafrikasaurus</i> Genus of theropod dinosaur

Ostafrikasaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period of what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. It is known only from fossil teeth discovered sometime between 1909 and 1912, during an expedition to the Tendaguru Formation by the Natural History Museum of Berlin. Eight teeth were originally attributed to the dubious dinosaur genus Labrosaurus, and later to Ceratosaurus, both known from the North American Morrison Formation. Subsequent studies attributed two of these teeth to a spinosaurid dinosaur, and in 2012, Ostafrikasaurus crassiserratus was named by French palaeontologist Eric Buffetaut, with one tooth as the holotype, and the other referred to the same species. The generic name comes from the German word for German East Africa, the former name of the colony in which the fossils were found, while the specific name comes from the Latin words for "thick" and "serrated", in reference to the form of the animal's teeth.

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Lusovenator is a genus of carcharodontosaurian theropod dinosaur, from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Praia de Amoreira Porto-Novo Member and the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (Tithonian-Berriasian) Assenta Member of the Lourinhã Formation in present-day Portugal. It includes one species, Lusovenator santosi.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rauhut, Oliver W. M. (2011). "Theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania)". Special Papers in Palaeontology. 86: 195–239.
  2. W. Janensch. (1925). Die Coelurosaurier und Theropoden der Tendaguru-Schichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas [The coelurosaurs and theropods of the Tendaguru Formation of German East Africa]. Palaeontographica, Supplement VII. (1) 1(1):1-100
  3. Molina-Pérez, Rubén; Larramendi, Asier; Connolly, David; Cruz, Gonzalo Ángel Ramírez (2019-06-25). Dinosaur Facts and Figures. Princeton Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-18031-1.
  4. Holtz, Holtz R. (2012). "Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages" (PDF).
  5. Kellermann, Maximilian; Cuesta, Elena; Rauhut, Oliver W. M. (2025-01-14). "Re-evaluation of the Bahariya Formation carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its implications for allosauroid phylogeny". PLOS ONE. 20 (1): e0311096. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311096 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   11731741 . PMID   39808629.
  6. Cau, Andrea (2024). "A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution". Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana. 63 (1): 1–19. doi:10.4435/BSPI.2024.08 (inactive 2024-11-20). ISSN   0375-7633.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
  7. Malafaia, Elisabete; Mocho, Pedro; Escaso, Fernando; Ortega, Francisco (2020-01-02). "A new carcharodontosaurian theropod from the Lusitanian Basin: evidence of allosauroid sympatry in the European Late Jurassic". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (1): e1768106. Bibcode:2020JVPal..40E8106M. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1768106. ISSN   0272-4634.