Juratyrant

Juratyrant Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 149 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Restoration illustrating known fossil remains in gray
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Family:	†Proceratosauridae
Genus:	†Juratyrant Brusatte & Benson, 2013
Type species
†Stokesosaurus langhami Benson, 2008
Species
†Juratyrant langhami (Benson, 2008)
Synonyms
Stokesosaurus langhami Benson, 2008

Juratyrant (meaning "Jurassic tyrant") is a tyrannosauroid dinosaur genus from the late Jurassic period (early Tithonian age) of England. The genus contains a single species, J. langhami.

Discovery

Restoration

The species is known from a single specimen consisting of an "associated partial skeleton represented by a complete pelvis" as well as a partially complete leg, and neck, back, and tail vertebrae.^[1] This skeleton was discovered in 1984 in Dorset. The specimen was mentioned in several papers, but was not formally described until 2008. The species was named in honor of commercial fossil collector^[2] Peter Langham, who uncovered the specimen. The specimen was discovered in strata of the Kimmeridge Clay dating from the Tithonian, the final stage of the Late Jurassic, and belonging to the Pectinatites pectinatus ammonite zone, indicating the fossil is between 149.3 and 149 million years old.^[1]

Classification

Estimated size compared to a human

The species was originally assigned to the genus Stokesosaurus, as Stokesosaurus langhami, by Roger Benson in 2008. However, later studies showed that it was not necessarily a close relative of Stokesosaurus clevelandi, the type species of that genus. It was formally re-classified in its own genus, Juratyrant, by Benson and Stephen Brusatte in 2013.^[3]

Below is a cladogram placing Juratyrant as a sister taxon to Stokesosaurus inside Proceratosauridae. It was published by Loewen et al. in 2013.^[4]

Tyrannosauroidea	Proceratosauridae Proceratosaurus bradleyi Kileskus aristotocus Guanlong wucaii Sinotyrannus kazuoensis Juratyrant langhami Stokesosaurus clevelandi Dilong paradoxus Eotyrannus lengi Bagaraatan ostromi Raptorex kriegsteini Dryptosaurus aquilunguis Alectrosaurus olseni Xiongguanlong baimoensis Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis Alioramus altai Alioramus remotus Tyrannosauridae

See also

• Timeline of tyrannosaur research

References

1. Benson, R.B.J. (2008). "New information on Stokesosaurus, a tyrannosauroid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from North America and the United Kingdom." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(3):732-750. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[732:NIOSAT]2.0.CO;2.
2. Taylor, M.A., 1989, " 'Fine Fossils For Sale' — the Professional Collector and the Museum", Geological Curator 5(2): 55-64
3. Brusatte, S.L. and Benson, R.B.J. (2013). "The systematics of Late Jurassic tyrannosauroids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Europe and North America." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 58(1): 47-54. doi:10.4202/app.2011.0141
4. Loewen, M.A.; Irmis, R.B.; Sertich, J.J.W.; Currie, P. J.; Sampson, S. D. (2013). Evans, David C, ed. "Tyrant Dinosaur Evolution Tracks the Rise and Fall of Late Cretaceous Oceans". PLoS ONE 8 (11): e79420. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079420.