#teinurosaurus

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Teinurosaurus sauvagei

By Ripley Cook

Etymology: Extended Tail Reptile

First Described By: Nopcsa, 1928

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: Probably sometime in the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic, sometime between 152.1 and 145 million years ago. 

Teinurosaurus is known from the Mont-Lambert Formation of Nord Pas de Calais, France. 

Physical Description: Teinurosaurus was named off of a single vertebra that has since been destroyed. That vertebra was from the tail, and fairly small, so it’s not really useful in saying anything about this dinosaur. As a theropod, it would have been bipedal; anything beyond that in terms of form, specializations, and appearance, is difficult to say. It probably would have had feathers, though that is also a question given we know almost nothing about this dinosaur.

Diet: Probably meat

Behavior: Unknown

Ecosystem: Teinurosaurus lived in a Late Jurassic ecosystem in France, which at the time was part of a tropical island system in Europe, scattered in shallow water. This Mont-Lambert Formation had other dinosaurs, though they’re poorly known - Iguanodonts, Megalosaurids, and potentially even Sauropods are known from the area, as well as marine reptiles. The skeleton of Teinurosaurus probably washed out to sea, which lead to its preservation.

Other: Teinurosaurus was originally misreported as being from Portugal because its description happened to be buried in a book describing a bunch of dinosaurs from Portugal; however, it was actually from France. It has a complex taxonomic history, which is fun, because it is a poorly known dinosaur named off of a single vertebra that was lost.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the cut 

Galton, P. M., H. P. Powell. 1980. The Ornithischian Dinosaur Camptosaurus prestwichii from the Upper Jurassic of England. Palaeontology 23 (2): 411 - 443.

Nopcsa, F. 1928. The Genera of Reptiles. Palaeobiol 1: 163 - 188.

Nopcsa, F. 1929. Addendum ‘The Genera of Reptiles’. Palaeobiol 1: 201.

Olshevsky, G. 1978. The Archosaurian Taxa (Excluding the Crocodylia). Mesozoic Meanderings 1: 1 - 50.

Sauvage, H.-E. 1888. On the Reptiles Found in the Upper Portlandian of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 3e 16: 623 - 632.

Von Huene, F. 1932. The Fossil Reptile Order Saurischia, their Development and History. Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, serie 1 4 (1-2): 1 - 361.