[D] Eotyrannus lengi [Su] [sG] [T]
Describer
Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker & Newbery, 2001
Time
Cretaceous Early Barremian(?)
Classification
Saurischia Theropoda Tyrannosauria
Diet
Carnivore
Fossilsite
Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight, England
Length
4 meter
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Eotyrannus lengi (Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker & Newbery, 2001) > Kittysaurus (Hargreaves, 2001) > Lengosaurus (Kelly, 1998) > Gavinosaurus (Kelly, 1998) > Fusinasus (Hutt, 2002)
\\\\\\\"Early tyrant\\\\\\\" Holotype MIWG1997.550 premaxilla, partial maxilla, nasals, lacrimal, quadrate, dentaries, teeth, axial neural arch, cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, caudal vertebrae?, scapulae, coracoid, humeri, radius?, partial ulna, carpal, metacarpals, manual phalanges and unguals, ilial fragments, proximal tibia, fibula, metatarsals, pedal phalanges, pedal ungual.
Discovered in 1996 by amateur fossil collector Gavin Leng on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight. The bones were found in concrete-like mudstone. About 40 % of the total skeleton has been found, enough to determine it is an entirely new species.
Eotyrannus was much smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex but the skull, shoulder and limb were similar. Eotyrannus may also be closely related to Velociraptor. Another possible early tyrannosaur is Siamotyrannus isanensis from Thailand.
The teeth in the premaxilla are D-shaped in cross-section and the nasals are fused. The hands are elongate and slender and the hindlimbs are gracile. Lack of element fusion elsewhere in the skeleton suggests that it is a subadult. Numerous character states are shared with tyrannosaurids but the new taxon appears to be excluded from the group that comprises aublysodontine and tyrannosaurine tyrannosaurids . E. lengi is a basal tyrannosauroid and as such it is one of the earliest.
Diagnosis of genus (as for the type species) Tyrannosaurid coelurosaurian having serrated carinae on D-shaped premaxillary teeth; maxillarly and dentary teet6h with apically complete denticulation; rostral carinae bearing denticle-bearing part of caudal cerinae; denticle size difference index of about 1.5; rostral portion of maxilla laterally flattened, rostral border to antiorbital fossa sharply defined, ventral adge of maxilla straight; coracoid having prominent, mediolaterally wide, subcircular, caudally directed glenoid; humerus with large internal cavity located dorsally (anconally), several smaller cavities located ventrally; manus proportionally long (digit II about 95 % length of humerus), with three well-developed metacarpals not reduced to simple elements (as in tyrannosaurids). (Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker and Newbery, 2001)
Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker & Newbery, 2001
Time
Cretaceous Early Barremian(?)
Classification
Saurischia Theropoda Tyrannosauria
Diet
Carnivore
Fossilsite
Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight, England
Length
4 meter
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Eotyrannus lengi (Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker & Newbery, 2001) > Kittysaurus (Hargreaves, 2001) > Lengosaurus (Kelly, 1998) > Gavinosaurus (Kelly, 1998) > Fusinasus (Hutt, 2002)
\\\\\\\"Early tyrant\\\\\\\" Holotype MIWG1997.550 premaxilla, partial maxilla, nasals, lacrimal, quadrate, dentaries, teeth, axial neural arch, cervical vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, caudal vertebrae?, scapulae, coracoid, humeri, radius?, partial ulna, carpal, metacarpals, manual phalanges and unguals, ilial fragments, proximal tibia, fibula, metatarsals, pedal phalanges, pedal ungual.
Discovered in 1996 by amateur fossil collector Gavin Leng on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight. The bones were found in concrete-like mudstone. About 40 % of the total skeleton has been found, enough to determine it is an entirely new species.
Eotyrannus was much smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex but the skull, shoulder and limb were similar. Eotyrannus may also be closely related to Velociraptor. Another possible early tyrannosaur is Siamotyrannus isanensis from Thailand.
The teeth in the premaxilla are D-shaped in cross-section and the nasals are fused. The hands are elongate and slender and the hindlimbs are gracile. Lack of element fusion elsewhere in the skeleton suggests that it is a subadult. Numerous character states are shared with tyrannosaurids but the new taxon appears to be excluded from the group that comprises aublysodontine and tyrannosaurine tyrannosaurids . E. lengi is a basal tyrannosauroid and as such it is one of the earliest.
Diagnosis of genus (as for the type species) Tyrannosaurid coelurosaurian having serrated carinae on D-shaped premaxillary teeth; maxillarly and dentary teet6h with apically complete denticulation; rostral carinae bearing denticle-bearing part of caudal cerinae; denticle size difference index of about 1.5; rostral portion of maxilla laterally flattened, rostral border to antiorbital fossa sharply defined, ventral adge of maxilla straight; coracoid having prominent, mediolaterally wide, subcircular, caudally directed glenoid; humerus with large internal cavity located dorsally (anconally), several smaller cavities located ventrally; manus proportionally long (digit II about 95 % length of humerus), with three well-developed metacarpals not reduced to simple elements (as in tyrannosaurids). (Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker and Newbery, 2001)