Describer

Benson & Radley 2009

Time

Jurassic Middle Bathonian

Classification

Saurischia Theropoda Tetanurae

Diet

Carnivore

Fossilsite

Chipping Norton Formation, England

Info

Holotype

WARMS G15770, a partial right femur.

Paratypes

WARMS G15771, additional theropod material from the type locality that probably represents the same individual as the holotype: an anterior dorsal or posterior cervical vertebra; a dorsal neural arch; a partial dorsal vertebra; the anterior half of a middle-distal caudal vertebra; a partial right scapulocoracoid; a partial left ilium; the proximal end of a left pubis; numerous rib and bone fragments.

Etymology

From Latin crux, cross; and Greek cheiros, hand; intended as ‘cross hand’, a version of the locality name. | After the Newman family, owners of Cross Hands Quarry, Warwickshire, United Kingdom.

Locality and horizon

Chipping Norton Limestone Formation (Lower Bathonian Zigzagiceras zigzag biozone; Torrens 1980) of Cross Hands Quarry (National Grid Reference (NGR) SP 269 291) near Little Compton, Warwickshire. The Chipping Norton Limestone Formation of the Little Compton area is characterized by sandy ooidal and bioclastic limestones, yielding a marine bivalve fauna (Sellwood and McKerrow 1974; Sumbler 2002). Abundant terrestrial plant material (Sumbler 2002) indicates significant terrigenous input into a shallow marine environment and a potentially appropriate mechanism for derivation of the dinosaur remains.

Diagnosis

Tetanuran theropod with autapomorphic proximomedially inclined ridge within the trochanteric fossa of the femur. Differs from the contemporaneous Megalosaurus bucklandii in posessing low proportions of the dorsal neural spines, transversely broader dorsal neural spines, a prominent posterior flange of the femoral caput and a lower ratio of anteroposterior length to mediolateral width of the pubic peduncle (1.60 in Megalosaurus and estimated between 1.00 and 1.10 in C. newmanorum). Few informative comparisons can be made between C. newmanorum and Dubreuillosaurus or Poekilopleuron from the lower Bathonian of France because of limited overlap between known material.

However, Dubreuillosaurus shows two large internal chambers separated by a midline septum in pneumatic vertebrae and an unfused scapula and coracoid (perhaps due to immaturity of the holotype) (Allain 2005) whereas C. newmanorum vertebrae have more numerous internal pneumatic chambers and the scapulocoracoid suture is fused and swollen. Poekilopleuron also differs from C. newmanorum as it lacks prominent anterior spur on the caudal neural spines.