Named By: | Werner Janensch in 1920 |
Time Period: | Late Jurassic, 154-150 Ma |
Location: | Tanzania - Tendaguru Formation. Possibly also USA - Morrison Formation |
Size: | Around 6.2 meters long |
Diet: | Carnivore |
Fossil(s): | Almost complete skeleton. Skull unknown |
Classification: | | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Saurischia | Theropoda | Neotheropoda | Ceratosauria | |
Elaphrosaurus ( el-AH-froh-SAW-ras) is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 154 to 150 million years ago during the later part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. Elaphrosaurus was a medium-sized, but lightly built, bipedal, carnivore, that could grow up to 6.2 m (20 ft) long. Morphologically, this dinosaur is significant in two ways. First, it has a relatively long trunk but is very shallow-chested for a theropod of its size. Second, it has very short hindlimbs when compared to its relatively long trunk. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that this genus is likely a ceratosaur, and earlier suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been examined but generally dismissed.