| Teinurosaurus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vertebra | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Genus: | †Teinurosaurus Nopcsa, 1928 |
| Type species | |
| †Teinurosaurus sauvagei von Huene, 1932 | |
| Synonyms | |
Teinurosaurus is agenus ofcarnivoroustheropoddinosaur that lived during the LateJurassic in what is nowFrance. Thetype species isTeinurosaurus sauvagei. It has been estimated to be 11.4 m (37 ft) in length and 3.6 t (4.0 short tons) in weight.[1]
The holotype was discovered in 1897. Also in 1897, FrenchpaleontologistHenri-Émile Sauvage referred a tail vertebra from theTithonianMont-Lambert Formation of France,[2] catalogued in the collection of theMusée Géologique du Boulonnais atBoulogne-sur-Mer inFrance, toIguanodon prestwichii (nowCumnoria prestwichii), a herbivorousiguanodont.[3]
In 1928 BaronFranz Nopcsa recognised the fossil to be the vertebra of a theropod not an ornithopod. He decided to name it as the genusTeinurosaurus.[4] However, by a mistake of the printer, thefootnote in which the new name was mentioned was not placed at the end of the section referring to the fossil but adjacent to a citation ofSaurornithoides Osborn 1924, giving the false impression Nopcsa intended to rename the latter genus. After having discovered the typographical error, Nopcsa in 1929 added anaddendum to the article, correcting the mistake.[5]
In 1932 German paleontologistFriedrich von Huene again named the fossil, giving it thespecies nameCaudocoelus sauvagei. "Caudocoelus" means "hollow tail" inLatin. Thespecific epithet honours Sauvage.[6] The nameTeinurosaurus was largely forgotten or not even understood to be a synonym ofCaudocoelus, until in 1969John Ostrom revealed its priority. Ostrom also pointed out that Nopcsa had not provided a specific name.[7] In 1978 George Olshevsky was the first to combine the two names, makingTeinurosaurus sauvagei (von Huene 1932) Olshevsky 1978 vide Nopcsa 1928 emend. 1929 a valid species name.[8]
The holotype (originally cataloguedMGB 500 nowBHN2R 240) is a distal caudal vertebra, 152 millimetres long. A number of authors (e.g. Lapparent 1967; Galton 1982) believed that the holotype was destroyed in World War II, but the specimen is still extant, as noted by Buffetaut et al. (1991).[9][10][11]
Teinurosaurus was considered by von Huene to be a memberCoeluridae, but is now generally seen as anomen dubium atAverostraincertae sedis.
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