Stokesosaurus
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Stokesosaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 150 Ma |
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| Holotype UMNH VP 7473 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Proceratosauridae |
| Genus: |
†Stokesosaurus Madsen, 1974 |
| Species: | †S. clevelandi |
| Binomial name | |
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Stokesosaurus clevelandi Madsen, 1974 |
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Stokesosaurus (meaning "Stokes' lizard") is a genus of small (around three to four meters (10-13 ft) in length), carnivorous early tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaurs from the late Jurassic period of Utah.
From 1960 onwards Utah geologist William Lee Stokes and his assistant James Madsen excavated thousands of disarticulated Allosaurus bones at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Emery County, Utah. During the early seventies Madsen began to catalogue these finds in detail, discovering that some remains represented species new to science. In 1974 Madsen named and described the type species Stokesosaurus clevelandi. Its generic name honours Stokes. The specific name refers to the town of Cleveland, Utah.
The holotype (UUVP 2938) was uncovered in the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation dating from the early Tithonian stage, about 150 million years old. It consists of a left ilium or hip bone, belonging to a juvenile individual. Madsen also assigned a paratype, UUVP 2320, a 50% larger right ilium. Additionally he referred a right premaxilla, UUVP 2999. However, this was in 2005 referred to Tanycolagreus.Stokesosaurus and Tanycolagreus are about the same size, and it is possible that the latter is a junior synonym of the former. However, the ilium (the best and perhaps only known element of Stokesosaurus) of Tanycolagreus has never been recovered, making direct comparison difficult.
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