''Dryptosauroides'' (meaning "similar in form to ''
Dryptosaurus''") is the name given to a dubious
genus of
dinosaur from the Late
Cretaceous. It was a large
theropod, possibly belonging to the
Abelisauroidea
Abelisauroidea is typically regarded as a Cretaceous group, though the earliest abelisauridae remains are known from the Middle Jurassic of Argentina (classified as the species Eoabelisaurus mefi) and possibly Madagascar (fragmentary remains of ...
. It has been estimated as 10 meters (33 feet) long and 1.5 tonnes (1.65 short tons) in weight.
Its
fossils, consisting of six caudal
vertebrae, together forming
type specimens GSI IM K20/334, 609, K27/549, 601, 602 and 626, were found in
India in the
Lameta Formation of the
Maastrichtian. The vertebrae, originally incorrectly identified as dorsals, are thirteen to fourteen centimetres long. These remains are today commonly considered to be indistinguishable from those of other theropods from the same formation. A cervical vertebra, four rib heads and a dorsal rib have also been assigned to ''Dryptosauroides'' (''D'' .sp), but they may have belonged to a different
theropod.
The
type species, ''Dryptosauroides grandis'', was named by
Friedrich von Huene
Friedrich von Huene, born Friedrich Richard von Hoinigen, (March 22, 1875 – April 4, 1969) was a German paleontologist who renamed more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe. He also made key contributions about v ...
in 1932 and described by him and
Charles Alfred Matley
Charles Alfred Matley (1866–1947) was a British paleontologist and geologist in India, the British West Indies and Wales.
Matley was educated at Birmingham University, and earned a doctorate in geology (D.Sc.) from the University of London in J ...
in 1933.
[Huene, F. von, and Matley, C. A. (1933) "The Cretaceous Saurischia and Ornithischia of the central provinces of India" ''Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India'' 21: 1-74] The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
''grandis'' means "large" in
Latin.
See also
*
Timeline of ceratosaur research
This timeline of ceratosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ceratosaurs, a group of relatively primitive, often horned, predatory theropod dinosaurs that became the apex predators of ...
References
Ceratosaurs
Dinosaurs of India and Madagascar
Late Cretaceous dinosaurs
Fossil taxa described in 1933
Taxa named by Friedrich von Huene
Taxa named by Charles Alfred Matley
Nomina dubia
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