![]() Like its relative Eotyrannus, Dryptosaurus seems to have had relatively long arms when compared with more derived tyrannosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus. The estimated size of Dryptosaurus compared to a humanĭryptosaurus is estimated to have been 7.5 metres (25 ft) long and weighed 1.5 metric tons (1.7 short tons), although this is based on partial remains of one individual. Brownstein also placed the pedal phalanges in Ornithimimosauria, though he didn’t create a lectotype for Laelaps macropus. Earlier that year, Brownstein (2017) analyzed the material of Laelaps macropus and found that only the partial tibia could be definitely classified as that of a tyrannosauroid and that the distal metatarsal could’ve been from an ornithomimosaur. In 2017, it was informally given the new generic name “ Teihivenator”. Thomas Holtz listed it as an indeterminate tyrannosauroid in his contribution to the second edition of the Dinosauria. Laelaps macropus was coined by Cope for a partial leg found in the Navesink Formation that Joseph Leidy had referred earlier to the ornithomimid Coelosaurus, distinguishing it from Dryptosaurus by its longer toes. ![]() However, some of the Allosaurus-like characters of the teeth are primitive to theropods as a whole and may have been present in other large-bodied Morrison Formation theropod species. trihedrodon holotype share many features in common with Allosaurus and probably belong to that genus instead. Five damaged partial tooth crowns from AMNH 5780 mistakenly thought to have belonged to the L. Laelaps trihedrodon was coined by Cope in 1877 for a partial dentary from the Morrison Formation of Colorado, which is now missing. The casts show some detail that is no longer preserved on the original specimens, which have significantly degraded due to pyrite disease. (2011) noted that well-preserved historic casts of most of the type material from ANSP 9995 and AMNH FARB 2438 are housed in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London (NHM OR50100). By Edward Drinker Cope, 1869īrusatte et al. The type species is Dryptosaurus aquilunguis.Īn outdated historical depiction of Dryptosaurus (center) confronting Elasmosaurus, with two Hadrosaurus in the background. Marsh changed the name in 1877 to Dryptosaurus. It was later discovered that the name Laelaps had already been given to a genus of mite, and Cope's lifelong rival O.C. Laelaps gained its popularity as both a poetic and evocative name, becoming one of the first dinosaurs described from North America, alongside Hadrosaurus and Trachodon. " Laelaps", which is derived from the Greek for "hurricane" or "storm wind", was also the name of a dog in Greek mythology that never failed to catch what it was hunting. Cope (1866) published a paper on the specimen within a week of its discovery and named it Laelaps aquilunguis at a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. ![]() The specific name aquilunguis is derived from the Latin words for "having claws like an eagle's", which is a reference to the claws on its (at the time) three-fingered hand. The genus name Dryptosaurus, means "tearing lizard", and is derived from the Greek words "dryptō" ( δρύπτω), meaning "I tear" and "sauros" ( σαυρος) meaning "lizard". During the late 19th century, this genus unfortunately became a wastebasket taxon for the referral of isolated theropod elements from across North America, given that tyrannosauroids were not recognized as a distinct group of large theropods at the time, and numerous theropod species were assigned to it (often as Lælaps or Laelaps), only to be later reclassified. The discovery of Dryptosaurus gave North American paleontologists the opportunity to observe an articulated, albeit incomplete, theropod skeleton. Prior to the discovery of Dryptosaurus in 1866, New World theropods were known only from some isolated theropod teeth discovered in Montana by Joseph Leidy in 1856.
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