Alectrosaurus
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Alectrosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 83–74 Ma |
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| Right hind foot of Alectrosaurus olseni. No. 6368, A.M.N.H. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Tyrannosauroidea |
| Genus: |
†Alectrosaurus Gilmore, 1933 |
| Species: | †A. olseni |
| Binomial name | |
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Alectrosaurus olseni Gilmore, 1933 |
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Alectrosaurus (/əˌlɛktroʊˈsɔːrəs/; meaning "alone lizard") is an extinct genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 83 to 74 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Inner Mongolia. It was a medium-sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, with a body shape similar to its much larger relative, Tyrannosaurus rex, and could grow up to an estimated 5 m (16.4 ft) long.
The generic name Alectrosaurus can be translated as "alone lizard", and is derived from the Greek words alektros and sauros ("lizard"). There is one named species (A. olseni), which is named in honor of George Olsen, who discovered the first specimens. Both genus and species were described and named by American paleontologist Charles Gilmore in 1933.
In 1923, the Third Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, led by chief paleontologist Walter W. Granger was hunting for dinosaur fossils in Mongolia. On April 25, assistant paleontologist George Olsen recovered the holotype (AMNH 6554), or name-bearing specimen, of Alectrosaurus, a nearly complete right hindlimb. This included the distal end of the right femur, the tibia, the fibula, the astragalus, the calcaneum, an incomplete right pes, three metatarsals of the left hind foot, two manual unguals, a manus, and the distal end of the pubis known as the pubic foot. On May 4, Olsen discovered AMNH 6368 approximately 30 meters away from his first find. This specimen included a right humerus, two incomplete manual digits, four fragmentary caudal vertebrae, and other poorly preserved material. These discoveries were made at the Iren Dabasu Formation in what is now the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Nei Mongol Zizhiqu) of the People's Republic of China. The age of this geologic formation is not clear, but is commonly cited as the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, about 83 to 72 million years ago.
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