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Theropoda indet Schulp, Hanna, Hartman and Jagt, 2000. A Late Cretaceous theropod caudal vertebra from the Sultanate of Oman.Cretaceous Research 21 851-856. Abstract: A caudal vertebra collected from conglomerates of the Al-Khod Formation (Late Cretaceous) in the Al-Khod area, Sultanate of Oman, is assigned to a medium-sized theropod dinosaur. The Al-Khod discovery represents one of the very few dinosaur records from the Middle East. Copyright 2000 Academic Press Comments by Mickey Mortimer Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous, Al-Khod Conglomerate Formation, Oman Material- (SQU-2-7, Sultanate Qaboos University coll.) proximal caudal centrum (92 mm) Description- It's length is estimated at 6-7 meters. The centrum is platycoelous or slightly amphicoelous and subcircular posteriorly (111 mm tall, 105 mm wide). There are no pleurocoels, a slight chevron facet and a prominent ventral ridge. The neural canal is 18 mm wide, the ventral edge is deeply concave. Relationships- This is a fairly standard theropod caudal vertebra in most ways. The subcircular amphicoelous or platycoelous centrum with a deeply concave ventral edge and no pleurocoels is seen in the majority of theropods. Only "Capitalsaurus", Sinraptor dongi, alvarezsaurids and possibly Bagaraatan are known to have a single ventral ridge. Those of alvarezsaurids are strongly procoelous, while the other taxa have centra much taller than wide. Unfortunately, the fragmentary material does not allow identification more precise than Theropoda indet.
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