Dryptosaurus

''Dryptosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of eutyrannosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived on the island continent of Appalachia approximately 67-66 million years ago during the end of the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period. ''Dryptosaurus'' was a large, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore that could grow up to long and weigh up to .

Although it is now largely unknown outside of academic circles, the 1897 painting of the genus by Charles R. Knight made ''Dryptosaurus'' one of the more widely known dinosaurs of its time, in spite of its poor fossil record. First described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1866 and later renamed by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877, ''Dryptosaurus'' is among the first theropod dinosaurs ever known to science.

Discovery and species

Up until 1866, theropods from the Americas were only known from isolated teeth discovered by Ferdinand Van Hayden during Geological Survey excursions into Montana. During the summer of 1866, workers from the West Jersey Marl Company uncovered an incomplete theropod skeleton in a quarry near Barnsboro, New Jersey with sediments belonging to the Maastrichtian-aged New Egypt Formation. In August 1866, paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope was notified of the discovery and encouraged to visit the marl pit to obtain the specimen. When he arrived, he was thoroughly surprised by the skeleton's completeness and uniqueness, calling it the "finest discovery I have yet made". The skeleton was then deposited at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia under the catalogue number ANSP 9995 and includes; skull and dentary fragments, teeth, caudal vertebrae, humeri, an incomplete manus, a partial pelvis, and nearly complete left hindlimb. However, four chevrons, a sternum, and a scapula which are now lost were also noted by Cope in addition to several sacral vertebrae which are now referred to the protostegid '' Pneumatoarthrus.'' An isolated metatarsal possibly belonging to the skeleton was found at the same locale, but this has come into question.

Cope presented his description of the specimen to the Academy on August 21, 1866, naming it a new genus and species of dinosaur, ''Laelaps aquilunguis''. "''Laelaps''", which is derived from the Greek word "hurricane" or "storm wind", was also the name of a dog in Greek mythology who never failed to catch what it was hunting. The genus name was occupied by a mite and replaced by the name ''Dryptosaurus,'' "slashing reptile", by Othniel Marsh, Cope's rival in the Bone Wars, in 1877. However, Cope maintained that the name ''Laelaps'' was valid for years after, refusing to use ''Dryptosaurus''. Also in the 1870s, a partial dentary of a theropod was unearthed from the Late Jurassic strata of the Morrison Formation outside Canon City, Colorado. Cope coined ''Laelaps trihedrodon'', "three-hedged tooth", for the dentary in 1877, but it has since been lost. Later ''L. trihedrodon'' was moved the genus '' Antrodemus'', now ''Allosaurus'', based on its derivation but it is now considered a ''nomen dubium''. Five damaged partial tooth crowns from AMNH 5780, mistakenly thought to have belonged to the ''L. trihedrodon'' holotype, share many features in common with ''Allosaurus'' and probably belong to that genus instead. However, some of the ''Allosaurus''-like characteristics of the teeth are primitive to theropods as a whole and may have been present in other large-bodied Morrison Formation theropod species. Brusatte ''et al.'' (2011) noted that well-preserved, historic casts of most of the type material from ANSP 9995 and AMNH FARB 2438 are housed in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London (NHM OR50100). The casts show some detail that is no longer preserved on the original specimens, which have significantly degraded due to pyrite disease.

The discovery of this genus gave North American paleontologists the opportunity to observe an articulated, albeit incomplete, theropod skeleton. During the late 19th century, this genus unfortunately became a wastebasket taxon for the referral of isolated theropod elements from across North America, given that Tyrannosauroidea was not recognized as a distinct group of large theropods at the time and numerous theropod species were assigned to it (often as ''Lælaps'' or ''Laelaps''), only to be later reclassified.

Misassigned species or indeterminate remains

''Laelaps trihedrodon'' was coined by Cope in 1877 for a partial dentary (now missing) from the Morrison Formation of Colorado.

''Laelaps macropus'' was also coined by Cope for a partial leg found in the Navesink Formation that Joseph Leidy had referred earlier to the ornithomimid '' Coelosaurus'', distinguishing it from ''Dryptosaurus'' by its longer toes. Thomas R. Holtz listed it as an indeterminate tyrannosauroid in his contribution to the second edition of the ''Dinosauria''.Holtz, T.R. (2004). "Tyrannosauroidea." Pp. 111-136 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmolska (eds). ''The Dinosauria'' (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley. In 2017, it was informally given the new generic name ''" Teihivenator"''. Earlier that year, Brownstein (2017) analyzed the material of ''Laelaps macropus'' and found that only the partial tibia could be definitely classified as that of a tyrannosauroid and that the distal metatarsal could have been from an ornithomimosaur.Brownstein, C. D. (2017). ''Theropod specimens from the Navesink Formation and their implications for the Diversity and Biogeography of Ornithomimosaurs and Tyrannosauroids on Appalachia'' (No. e3105v1). PeerJ Preprints. Brownstein also placed the pedal phalanges in Ornithimimosauria, though he did not create a lectotype for ''Laelaps macropus.''

Some potential specimens consisting of partial teeth and femur fragments from the Tar Heel/Coachman Formation have been described in 1979 as cf. ''Dryptosaurus'' or ''Albertosaurus''. In February 2018, based on specimens described by Baird and Horner (1979), Brownstein tentatively classified the partial teeth (USNM 7199 and ANSP 15332) as ''D.'' sp. and the partial femur fragments (ANSP 15330 and USNM 7189, the latter of which was in part a syntype of '' Hypsibema'') as ''D. aquilunguis''. He also referred some teeth and fragmentary postcranial material from the Marshalltown Formation to ''D.'' sp. In December 2018, he simply referred to these specimens as "material comparable to the tyrannosaur ''Dryptosaurus aquilunguis''", not directly representing ''Dryptosaurus'' itself.

It was suggested that the indeterminate specimens from Marshalltown Formation might belong to '' Appalachiosaurus'' instead, and most of the putative specimens (ANSP 15330, ANSP 15332 and USNM 7199) from the Tar Heel/Coachman Formation were subsequently referred to as indeterminate Eutyrannosauria separate from ''Dryptosaurus'', with only USNM 7189 tentatively classified as ''D.'' sp. ANSP 15330 was simply referred to as a medium-sized theropod without specific classification in a 2023 study.

Description

''Dryptosaurus'' is estimated to have been long and , although this is based on partial remains of one individual. Like its relative '' Eotyrannus'', ''Dryptosaurus'' seems to have had relatively long arms when compared with more derived tyrannosaurs, such as ''Tyrannosaurus''. Its hands, which are also relatively large, were once believed to have had three fingers. Brusatte et al. (2011), however, observed an overall similarity in the shape of the available phalanges of ''Dryptosaurus'' with those of derived tyrannosaurids and noted that ''Dryptosaurus'' may have had only two functional digits. Each of its fingers were tipped with an eight-inch long, talon-like claw.Dryptosaurus." In: Dodson, Peter & Britt, Brooks & Carpenter, Kenneth & Forster, Catherine A. & Gillette, David D. & Norell, Mark A. & Olshevsky, George & Parrish, J. Michael & Weishampel, David B. The Age of Dinosaurs. Publications International, LTD. p. 112-113 Its arm morphology suggests that arm reduction in tyrannosauroids may not have proceeded in a uniform fashion. ''Dryptosaurus'' may have used both its arms and its jaws and as weapons when hunting, capturing, and processing its prey.

The type specimen is a fragmentary skeleton belonging to a single adult individual, ANSP 9995. ANSP 9995 consists of a fragmentary right maxilla, a fragmentary right dentary, a fragmentary right surangular, lateral teeth, 11 middle-distal caudal vertebrae, both the left and right humeri, three manual phalanges from the left hand (I-1, II-2, and an ungual), the shafts of the left and right pubic bones, a fragmentary right ischium, the left femur, the left tibia, the left fibula, the left astragalus, and a midshaft fragment of metatarsal III. The ontological maturity of the holotype individual is supported by the fact that the neurocentral sutures are closed in all of its caudal vertebrae. AMNH FARB 2438 consists of left metatarsal IV, which are likely from the same individual as the holotype.

The fragmentary right maxilla preserves the three alveoli in full and the fourth only partially. The authors were able to ascertain that ''Dryptosaurus'' had ziphodont dentition. The shape of the alveolus situated on the anterior portion of the fragment suggests that it housed a tooth that was smaller and more circular than the others. This incisiform tooth is common among tyrannosauroids. The disarticulated teeth recovered are transversely narrow, serrated (17–18 denticles/cm), and recurved. The femur is only 3% longer than the tibia. The longest manual ungual phalanx recovered measured in length. The morphology of the proximal portion of metatarsal IV suggests that ''Dryptosaurus'' had an arctometatarsalian foot, an advanced feature shared by derived tyrannosauroids, such as ''Albertosaurus'' and ''Tyrannosaurus'', in which the third metatarsal is "pinched" between the second and fourth metatarsals.

According to Brusatte ''et al.'' (2011), ''Dryptosaurus'' can be distinguished based on the following characteristics: the combination of a reduced humerus (humerus: femur ratio = 0.375) and a large hand (phalanx I-1:femur ratio = 0.200), the strong mediolateral expansion of the ischial tubercle, which is approximately 1.7 times as wide as the shaft immediately distally, the presence of an ovoid fossa on the medial surface of the femoral shaft immediately proximal to the medial condyle (which is demarcated anteriorly by the mesiodistal crest and demarcated medially by a novel crest) the presence of a proximomedially trending ridge on the anterior surface of the fibula immediately proximal to the iliofibularis tubercle, the lip on the lateral surface of the lateral condyle of the astragalus being prominent and overlapping the proximal surface of the calcaneum, and metatarsal IV being observed with a flat shaft proximally (resulting in a semiovoid cross section that is much wider mediolaterally than it is long anteroposteriorly).

Classification

Since the time of its discovery, ''Dryptosaurus'' has been classified in a number of different theropod families. Cope (1866), Leidy (1868), and Lydekker (1888) noted obvious similarities with the genus ''Megalosaurus'', which was known at the time from remains discovered in southeastern England. Based on this line of reasoning, Cope classified it as a megalosaurid. Marsh, however, examined the remains and later assigned to its own monotypic family, Dryptosauridae. The fossil material assigned to ''Dryptosaurus'' was reviewed by Ken Carpenter in 1997, in light of the many different theropods discovered since Cope's time. He felt that due to some unusual features it couldn't be placed in any existing family and, like Marsh, he felt that it warranted placement in Dryptosauridae. This phylogenetic assignment was also supported by the work of Russell (1970) and Molnar (1990). Other phylogenetic studies during the 1990s suggested that ''Dryptosaurus'' was a coelurosaur, though its exact placement within that group remained uncertain.

In 1946, Charles W. Gilmore was the first to observe that certain anatomical features may link ''Dryptosaurus'' with coeval