Re: An Elaphrosaurus question and request

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

Adam (acp002@mcdaniel.edu) wrote:

> Hmmm...Ozraptor the abelisauroid? That's kind of cool. 
> If the American "Elaphrosaurus" is indeed a
> similar abelisauroid, it seems like there was a
> low-key-but-worldwide radiation of leggy abelisauroids
> before the more familiar noasaurid-abelisaurid clade took
> hold.  I wonder how much old Jurassic
> "coelurosaur" material is nothing of the kind.


The erstwhile coelurosaur _Chuandongocoelurus_ (Middle Jurassic) has been 
mooted as a possible ceratosaur.  However, a recent phylogenetic analysis 
recovered it as a basal tetanuran.  The situation is muddied by the possibly 
chimeric nature of the _C. primitivus_ type specimen.

http://dml.cmnh.org/2008Nov/msg00161.html

An isolated premaxilla from the Morrison Formation may represent a new Late 
Jurassic ceratosaur.  This premaxilla (UUVP 2999) was originally referred to 
_Stokesosaurus_, and then to _Tanycolagreus_ (both coelurosaurs).  However, 
Benson (2008) suggests that the premaxilla belongs to neither of these, and 
pertains to a ceratosaur instead.  It can't belong to _Ceratosaurus_, which has 
three, not four, teeth per premaxilla.  (No mention of _Elaphrosaurus_, also 
known from the Morrison.)


Cheers

Tim