Dinosaurs - Proceratosaurus bradleyi

Introduction

Pronounced pro-seh-RAT-oh-SORE-us brad-lee-eye

Proceratosaurus means ‘lizard before Ceratosaurus' in Greek, and bradleyi refers to Mr F Lewis Bradley, who discovered the first specimen in the early 1900s.

This small early tyrannosaur had unusually enlarged nostrils and a head crest.

Identification

The small Proceratosaurus is known from a single partial skull of a subadult individual. It had unusally enlarged nostrils and a head crest - features typical of others in its family Proceratosauridae - and marked size differences between the teeth at the front of the mouth and those at the sides.

This species had a skull with internal air spaces, as with other tyrannosaurs such as T. rex, and also the D-shaped front teeth typical of all tyrannosaurs.

Distribution

Proceratosaurus lived in what is now England, Europe, about 168-166 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic.

Feeding and diet

As with most other theropods, Proceratosaurus was a predator and had serrated sharp teeth. Although it is only known from a single skull, it can be assumed the animal was two-legged with a long tail, as with other theropods.

Fossils description

The only known fossil - a 30cm-long skull - was found in Gloucestershire, England, in the early 1900s and originally called Megalosaurus in 1910, but was reclassified as a tyrannosauroid in 2009.

Evolutionary relationships

The skull was originally described in 1910 as a new species of Megalosaurus and was considered ancestral to the genus Ceratosaurus because of the similar crest on its snout. It was not until the skull was re-examined using CT scans in 2010, that scientists noted it had tyrannosauroid features. Among other tyrannosauroids, Proceratosaurus is most closely related to Guanlong and Kileskus. Its discovery leads scientists to believe early tyrannosauroids were widespread across the Northern Hemisphere.

References

Rauhut, O.W.M., Milner, A.C. and Moore-Fay, S. (2010). "Cranial osteology and phylogenetic position of the theropod dinosaur Proceratosaurus bradleyi (Woodward, 1910) from the Middle Jurassic of England". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society