Cruxicheiros: new British theropod

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

It's impressive that such a little island could yield so many theropods...

BTW, the genus name references the locality (Cross Hands Quarry).  
_Cruxicheiros_ is not a close relative of _Deinocheirus_.


A new large-bodied theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Warwickshire, 
United Kingdom

Roger B. J. Benson and Jonathan D. Radley
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica (in press)
available online 20 Nov 2009

http://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/20090083.html

Avstract: "Previously undocumented postcranial material from the Chipping 
Norton Limestone Formation (Middle Jurassic: Lower Bathonian) of Cross Hands 
Quarry, near Little Compton, Warwickshire represents a new large-bodied 
theropod dinosaur, distinct from the contemporaneous _Megalosaurus bucklandii_. 
 _Cruxicheiros newmanorum_ gen. et sp. nov. is diagnosed by a single 
autapomorphy, the presence of a proximomedially inclined ridge within the 
groove that marks the lateral extent of the posterior flange of the femoral 
caput (trochanteric fossa).  _C. newmanorum_ shows three tetanuran features: 
widely separated cervical zygapophyses, a swollen ridge on the lateral surface 
of the iliac blade and an anterior spur of the caudal neural spines.  However, 
due to fragmentary preservation its affinities within Tetanurae remain 
uncertain: phylogenetic analysis places it as the most basal tetanuran, the 
most basal megalosauroid (= spinosauroid) or the most basal
 neotetanuran."



Cheers

Tim