Sarcosaurus (meaning "flesh lizard") is a genus of basal neotheropoddinosaur, roughly 3.5 metres (11 ft) long. It lived in what is now England during the Hettangian-Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic, about 199-194 million years ago. Sarcosaurus is one of the earliest known Jurassic theropods, and one of only a handful of theropod genera from this time period. Along with Dracoraptor hanigani it is one of the two described neotheropods from the lowermost Jurassic of the United Kingdom.[1]
Size comparison of the two known partial skeletons of Sarcosaurus woodi (restored as a basal neotheropod)
The holotype is NHMUK PV R4840 a partial skeleton that includes a posterior dorsal vertebra, partial left and right ilia, that are fused to the proximal portion of the pubis, lacking the femoral head. The specimen shows some evidence of skeletal maturity, meaning it is not an early juvenile, but its exact ontogenetic stage cannot be ascertained.[1] Referred specimens include the non mature NHMUK PV R3542 (holotype of Sarcosaurus andrewsi) that includes a complete right tibia; WARMS G667–690, a partial skeleton of a single individual that includes posterior dorsal vertebra, middle caudal vertebra, dorsal rib fragments, left ilium, right and left pubes, femora and tibiae, proximal end of left fibula, probable distal half of fibula, distal portions of metatarsals IV, II or III proximal half of left pedal phalanx II-1, and three indeterminate bone fragments.[1][2]Sarcosaurus shares certain morphological conditions with other neotheropods, including Liliensternus liliensterni (collateral fossae of the metatarsal II with similar development and shape on both sides, larger ratio on the centrum) and Dilophosaurus wetherilli (lateral collateral fossa is bigger than the medial one in the metatarsal, middle caudal series proportionately lower and narrower than the middle−posterior dorsal vertebra). Sarcosaurus was a bipedal predator, probably able to run fast and catch small prey. The holotype belonged to a 3.5 m long animal whose weight was no greater than 50–60 kg. NHMUK PV R3542 belonged to a larger animal, estimated to have had a maximum length of 5 m and a weight of 140 kg.[3]
History of discoveryEdit
Pelvis and parts of femur and dorsal vertebra
The fossils of Sarcosaurus were found in the Lower Lias of England. The type species, Sarcosaurus woodi, was first described by Charles William Andrews in 1921 shortly after a partial skeleton had been found by S.L. Wood near Barrow-on-Soar, in the Scunthorpe Mudstone. The generic name is derived from Greek sarx, "flesh". The specific name honours Wood. The holotype, BMNH 4840/1, consists of a pelvis, a vertebra and the upper part of a femur. The preserved length of the femur is 31.5 centimetres (12.4 in).[4] A second species, Sarcosaurus andrewsi, was named by Friedrich von Huene in 1932,[5] based on a 445 millimetres (17.5 in) tibia, BMNH R3542, described by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1908 and found near Wilmcote.[6] Confusingly von Huene in the same publication named the very same fossil Magnosaurus woodwardi. Later he made a choice for S. andrewsi to be the valid name.[7] Huene also discussed WARMS G667–690, a partial skeleton also from Wilmcote, both specimens are from the Blue Lias. In 1974 S. andrewsi was reclassified as Megalosaurus andrewsi by Michael Waldman, on the probably erroneous assumption it was a megalosaurid.[8] A later study concluded the two species to be indistinguishable except for size, but other authors consider any identity to be unprovable as there are no comparable remains and conclude both species to lack autapomorphies and therefore to be nomina dubia.[9] Von Huene in 1932 referred a partial skeleton from the collection of the Warwick Museum to S. woodi but the identity was unproven; in 1995 it was given the informal name "Liassaurus"[10] but this has remained a nomen nudum. The specimen is likely one individual, located in the same stratiagraphic position as the holotypic specimen. Unfortunately, there are few available overlapping elements from the specimen and the holotype. Both specimens preserve a relatively complete femur: however, the features of both (an anteromedially directed head, a relatively long fourth trochanter and a trochanteric shelf) are plesiomorphic and thus do not indicate conspecifity or clade membership. It is noted, however, that there are no features which are present in one specimen but not the other. In 2020 WARMS G667–690 was given a comprehensive redescription, which proposed that all three specimens belonged to the same species, Sarcosaurus woodi.[1]
PhylogenyEdit
Sarcosaurus restored as a basal neotheropod
Andrews originally assigned Sarcosaurus to the Megalosauridae. The first to suggest a more basal position was Samuel Paul Welles who placed it in the Coelophysidae.[11] Later analyses resulted in either a position in the Ceratosauria,[12] or in the Coelophysoidea.[13] Ezcurra (2012) found Sarcosaurus to be the most basal ceratosaur in a large unpublished analysis.[14] In 2018, Andrea Cau in the large analysis of Saltriovenator found Sarcosaurus to be a dilophosaurid with good amount of support in the data.[15] In 2020, Ezcurra et al. recovered Sarcosaurus as a close relative of Averostra due to the presence of shared characters including an anteroventrally oriented ventral margin of the preacetabular process in lateral view on the ilium and a femur with a poorly posteriorly developed fourth trochanter. Their cladogram is shown below:[1]
Holotype specimen was collected from strata (bucklandi zone, Sinemurian) that were deposited in epicontinental, shallow, marine settings affected by sea-level fluctuations and a warm, predominantly humid climate.[16] In south-western Warwickshire, is represented by the upper part of the Rugby Limestone Member (Hettangian-Sinemurian) of the Blue Lias Formation. with typical lithofacies of alternating mudrocks and generally fine-grained and frequently highly fossiliferous limestones.[17] the Rugby Limestone Member was deposited at a palaeolatitude of approximately 35° N in a storm-influenced offshore setting.[18]Wilmcote was related to the eastern margin of the Worcester Graben during the Early Jurassic and adjacent to the East Midlands Shelf.[19] The western margin of the emergent London Platform at 60−80 km to the south-east was probably the principal source of terrestrial biodebris.[20]
^ abcdeEzcurra, M. D.; Butler, R. J.; Maidment, S. C. R.; Sansom, I. J.; Meade, L. E.; Radley, J. D. (2020). "A revision of the early neotheropod genus Sarcosaurus from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian–Sinemurian) of central England". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa054. hdl:11336/160038.
^Carrano and Sampson (2004). "A review of coelophysoids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Early Jurassic of Europe, with comments on the late history of the Coelophysoidea." N. Jb. Geol. Palaont. Mh., 2004(9): 537-558.
^Molina-Pérez, R., Larramendi, A., Connolly, D., & Cruz, G. Á. R. (2019). Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Theropods and Other Dinosauriformes. Princeton University Press.
^Andrews, C.W., 1921, "On some remains of a theropodous dinosaur from the Lower Lias of Barrow-on-Soar", Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 98: 570-576 [1]
^von Huene, F., 1932, Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte, Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie 1(4) pp. 361
^Woodward, A.S. 1908. "Note on a megalosaurian tibia from the Lower Lias of Wilmcote, Warwickshire". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 8(1): 257-259
^Huene, F. von, 1956, Paläontologie und Phylogenie der niederen Tetrapoden. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena. 716 pp
^Waldman, M. 1974. "Megalosaurids from the Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) of Dorset". Paleontology17(2): 325-339
^D. Naish and D. M. Martill. 2007. "Dinosaurs of Great Britain and the role of the Geological Society of London in their discovery: basal Dinosauria and Saurischia". Journal of the Geological Society, London164: 493-510
^Pickering, S. 1995. Jurassic Park: Unauthorized Jewish Fractals in Philopatry. A Fractal Scaling in Dinosaurology Project, 2nd revised printing. Capitola, California. 478 pp
^J A. Gauthier. 1986. "Saurischian monophyly and the origin of birds". In: The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight, K. Padian (ed.), Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 8: 1-55
^M.T. Carrano, J.R. Hutchinson, and S.D. Sampson. 2005. "New information on Segisaurus halli, a small theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Arizona". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology25 (4): 835-849
^Ezcurra, 2012. Phylogenetic analysis of Late Triassic - Early Jurassic neotheropod dinosaurs: Implications for the early theropod radiation. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Program and Abstracts 2012, 91.
^Dal Sasso C, Maganuco S, Cau A. 2018. The oldest ceratosaurian (Dinosauria: Theropoda), from the Lower Jurassic of Italy, sheds light on the evolution of the three-fingered hand of birds. PeerJ 6:e5976
^Hesselbo SP. 2008. Sequence stratigraphy and inferred relative sea-level change from the onshore British Jurassic.Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 119: 19−34
^Ambrose K. 2001. The lithostratigraphy of the Blue Lias Formation (Late Rhaetian–Early Sinemurian) in the southern part of the English Midlands. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 112: 97−110
^Weedon GP, Jenkyns HC, Page KN. 2017. Combined sealevel and climatic control on limestone formation, hiatuses and ammonite preservation in the Blue Lias Formation, South Britain (uppermost Triassic–Lower Jurassic). Geological Magazine 155: 1117−1149.
^Cox BM, SumblerMG, Ivimey-Cook HC. 1999. "A formational framework for the Lower Jurassic of England and Wales (onshore area)". British Geological Survey Research Report RR/99/01: 1–28.
External linksEdit
Sarcosaurus in the Dino Directory
August 29, 2023
sarcosaurus, confused, with, sarcolestes, sarcosuchus, meaning, flesh, lizard, genus, basal, neotheropod, dinosaur, roughly, metres, long, lived, what, england, during, hettangian, sinemurian, stages, early, jurassic, about, million, years, earliest, known, ju. Not to be confused with Sarcolestes or Sarcosuchus Sarcosaurus meaning flesh lizard is a genus of basal neotheropod dinosaur roughly 3 5 metres 11 ft long It lived in what is now England during the Hettangian Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic about 199 194 million years ago Sarcosaurus is one of the earliest known Jurassic theropods and one of only a handful of theropod genera from this time period Along with Dracoraptor hanigani it is one of the two described neotheropods from the lowermost Jurassic of the United Kingdom 1 SarcosaurusTemporal range Hettangian Sinemurian 199 194 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Skeletons of the known specimens of Sarcosaurus woodi restored as a ceratosaur Scientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClade DinosauriaClade SaurischiaClade TheropodaClade NeotheropodaGenus SarcosaurusAndrews 1921Type species Sarcosaurus woodiAndrews 1921SynonymsMagnosaurus woodi Andrews 1921 Huene 1932 Magnosaurus woodwardiHuene 1932 Megalosaurus Magnosaurus woodwardiHuene 1932 Sarcosaurus andrewsi Huene 1932 Megalosaurus andrewsi Huene 1932 Waldman 1972 Contents 1 Description 2 History of discovery 3 Phylogeny 4 Palaeoenvironment 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksDescription Edit Size comparison of the two known partial skeletons of Sarcosaurus woodi restored as a basal neotheropod The holotype is NHMUK PV R4840 a partial skeleton that includes a posterior dorsal vertebra partial left and right ilia that are fused to the proximal portion of the pubis lacking the femoral head The specimen shows some evidence of skeletal maturity meaning it is not an early juvenile but its exact ontogenetic stage cannot be ascertained 1 Referred specimens include the non mature NHMUK PV R3542 holotype of Sarcosaurus andrewsi that includes a complete right tibia WARMS G667 690 a partial skeleton of a single individual that includes posterior dorsal vertebra middle caudal vertebra dorsal rib fragments left ilium right and left pubes femora and tibiae proximal end of left fibula probable distal half of fibula distal portions of metatarsals IV II or III proximal half of left pedal phalanx II 1 and three indeterminate bone fragments 1 2 Sarcosaurus shares certain morphological conditions with other neotheropods including Liliensternus liliensterni collateral fossae of the metatarsal II with similar development and shape on both sides larger ratio on the centrum and Dilophosaurus wetherilli lateral collateral fossa is bigger than the medial one in the metatarsal middle caudal series proportionately lower and narrower than the middle posterior dorsal vertebra Sarcosaurus was a bipedal predator probably able to run fast and catch small prey The holotype belonged to a 3 5 m long animal whose weight was no greater than 50 60 kg NHMUK PV R3542 belonged to a larger animal estimated to have had a maximum length of 5 m and a weight of 140 kg 3 History of discovery Edit Pelvis and parts of femur and dorsal vertebraThe fossils of Sarcosaurus were found in the Lower Lias of England The type species Sarcosaurus woodi was first described by Charles William Andrews in 1921 shortly after a partial skeleton had been found by S L Wood near Barrow on Soar in the Scunthorpe Mudstone The generic name is derived from Greek sarx flesh The specific name honours Wood The holotype BMNH 4840 1 consists of a pelvis a vertebra and the upper part of a femur The preserved length of the femur is 31 5 centimetres 12 4 in 4 A second species Sarcosaurus andrewsi was named by Friedrich von Huene in 1932 5 based on a 445 millimetres 17 5 in tibia BMNH R3542 described by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1908 and found near Wilmcote 6 Confusingly von Huene in the same publication named the very same fossil Magnosaurus woodwardi Later he made a choice for S andrewsi to be the valid name 7 Huene also discussed WARMS G667 690 a partial skeleton also from Wilmcote both specimens are from the Blue Lias In 1974 S andrewsi was reclassified as Megalosaurus andrewsi by Michael Waldman on the probably erroneous assumption it was a megalosaurid 8 A later study concluded the two species to be indistinguishable except for size but other authors consider any identity to be unprovable as there are no comparable remains and conclude both species to lack autapomorphies and therefore to be nomina dubia 9 Von Huene in 1932 referred a partial skeleton from the collection of the Warwick Museum to S woodi but the identity was unproven in 1995 it was given the informal name Liassaurus 10 but this has remained a nomen nudum The specimen is likely one individual located in the same stratiagraphic position as the holotypic specimen Unfortunately there are few available overlapping elements from the specimen and the holotype Both specimens preserve a relatively complete femur however the features of both an anteromedially directed head a relatively long fourth trochanter and a trochanteric shelf are plesiomorphic and thus do not indicate conspecifity or clade membership It is noted however that there are no features which are present in one specimen but not the other In 2020 WARMS G667 690 was given a comprehensive redescription which proposed that all three specimens belonged to the same species Sarcosaurus woodi 1 Phylogeny Edit Sarcosaurus restored as a basal neotheropodAndrews originally assigned Sarcosaurus to the Megalosauridae The first to suggest a more basal position was Samuel Paul Welles who placed it in the Coelophysidae 11 Later analyses resulted in either a position in the Ceratosauria 12 or in the Coelophysoidea 13 Ezcurra 2012 found Sarcosaurus to be the most basal ceratosaur in a large unpublished analysis 14 In 2018 Andrea Cau in the large analysis of Saltriovenator found Sarcosaurus to be a dilophosaurid with good amount of support in the data 15 In 2020 Ezcurra et al recovered Sarcosaurus as a close relative of Averostra due to the presence of shared characters including an anteroventrally oriented ventral margin of the preacetabular process in lateral view on the ilium and a femur with a poorly posteriorly developed fourth trochanter Their cladogram is shown below 1 Theropoda TawaChindesaurusEodromaeusNeotheropoda CoelophysoideaZupaysaurusGojirasaurusCryolophosaurusDilophosaurusSarcosaurusTachiraptorAverostraPalaeoenvironment EditHolotype specimen was collected from strata bucklandi zone Sinemurian that were deposited in epicontinental shallow marine settings affected by sea level fluctuations and a warm predominantly humid climate 16 In south western Warwickshire is represented by the upper part of the Rugby Limestone Member Hettangian Sinemurian of the Blue Lias Formation with typical lithofacies of alternating mudrocks and generally fine grained and frequently highly fossiliferous limestones 17 the Rugby Limestone Member was deposited at a palaeolatitude of approximately 35 N in a storm influenced offshore setting 18 Wilmcote was related to the eastern margin of the Worcester Graben during the Early Jurassic and adjacent to the East Midlands Shelf 19 The western margin of the emergent London Platform at 60 80 km to the south east was probably the principal source of terrestrial biodebris 20 See also Edit Dinosaurs portalTimeline of coelophysoid researchReferences Edit a b c d e Ezcurra M D Butler R J Maidment S C R Sansom I J Meade L E Radley J D 2020 A revision of the early neotheropod genus Sarcosaurus from the Early Jurassic Hettangian Sinemurian of central England Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society doi 10 1093 zoolinnean zlaa054 hdl 11336 160038 Carrano and Sampson 2004 A review of coelophysoids Dinosauria Theropoda from the Early Jurassic of Europe with comments on the late history of the Coelophysoidea N Jb Geol Palaont Mh 2004 9 537 558 Molina Perez R Larramendi A Connolly D amp Cruz G A R 2019 Dinosaur Facts and Figures The Theropods and Other Dinosauriformes Princeton University Press Andrews C W 1921 On some remains of a theropodous dinosaur from the Lower Lias of Barrow on Soar Annals and Magazine of Natural History series 9 8 570 576 1 von Huene F 1932 Die fossile Reptil Ordnung Saurischia ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie 1 4 pp 361 Woodward A S 1908 Note on a megalosaurian tibia from the Lower Lias of Wilmcote Warwickshire Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8 1 257 259 Huene F von 1956 Palaontologie und Phylogenie der niederen Tetrapoden Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena 716 pp Waldman M 1974 Megalosaurids from the Bajocian Middle Jurassic of Dorset Paleontology 17 2 325 339 D Naish and D M Martill 2007 Dinosaurs of Great Britain and the role of the Geological Society of London in their discovery basal Dinosauria and Saurischia Journal of the Geological Society London 164 493 510 Pickering S 1995 Jurassic Park Unauthorized Jewish Fractals in Philopatry A Fractal Scaling in Dinosaurology Project 2nd revised printing Capitola California 478 pp S P Welles 1984 Dilophosaurus wetherilli Dinosauria Theropoda osteology and comparisons Palaeontographica Abteilung A 185 85 180 J A Gauthier 1986 Saurischian monophyly and the origin of birds In The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight K Padian ed Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 8 1 55 M T Carrano J R Hutchinson and S D Sampson 2005 New information on Segisaurus halli a small theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Arizona Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25 4 835 849 Ezcurra 2012 Phylogenetic analysis of Late Triassic Early Jurassic neotheropod dinosaurs Implications for the early theropod radiation Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Program and Abstracts 2012 91 Dal Sasso C Maganuco S Cau A 2018 The oldest ceratosaurian Dinosauria Theropoda from the Lower Jurassic of Italy sheds light on the evolution of the three fingered hand of birds PeerJ 6 e5976 Hesselbo SP 2008 Sequence stratigraphy and inferred relative sea level change from the onshore British Jurassic Proceedings of the Geologists Association 119 19 34 Ambrose K 2001 The lithostratigraphy of the Blue Lias Formation Late Rhaetian Early Sinemurian in the southern part of the English Midlands Proceedings of the Geologists Association 112 97 110 Weedon GP Jenkyns HC Page KN 2017 Combined sealevel and climatic control on limestone formation hiatuses and ammonite preservation in the Blue Lias Formation South Britain uppermost Triassic Lower Jurassic Geological Magazine 155 1117 1149 Radley JD 2003 Warwickshire s Jurassic geology past present and future Mercian Geologist 15 209 218 Cox BM SumblerMG Ivimey Cook HC 1999 A formational framework for the Lower Jurassic of England and Wales onshore area British Geological Survey Research Report RR 99 01 1 28 External links EditSarcosaurus in the Dino Directory Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sarcosaurus amp oldid 1172176905, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
