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Elaphrosaurus - 1 reference result
Elaphrosaurus
Elaphrosaurus (meaning "lightweight lizard") is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the late Jurassic of Tanzania, 145 mya. Elaphrosaurus was probably a ceratosaur about 6 meters (20 ft) long. Suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been entertained but are generally dismissed. A skeleton was found in the Tendaguru Beds of Tanzania, which also yielded Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus, and Kentrosaurus. A related animal, perhaps the same species, was found in the Morrison Formation. Few theropod skeletons have been found, most discoveries being fragments. Material from the Early Cretaceous of Niger was named E. gautieri in 1960, but it has since been renamed Spinostropheus by Sereno et al. (2004). What is known about Elaphrosaurus mostly comes from a single nearly complete skeleton. No skull has been found.

It was long and slender, with a long neck, possibly for digging into carrion. It was about 6.2 meters (20 ft) long, 1.46 meters (4.79 ft) tall at the hip, and weighed about 210 kilograms (460 lb). It was fast, probably running down small prey on open plains. The long legs suggest it may have been one of the fastest Jurassic dinosaurs.

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Last updated on Sunday August 24, 2008 at 16:09:25 PDT (GMT -0700)
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