Genus
Valid Extinct

Sarcosaurus

Andrews 1921

Sarcosaurus is a genus of basal neotheropod dinosaur, roughly 3.5 metres (11 ft) long. It lived in what is now England and maybe Ireland and Scotland during the Hettangian-Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic, about 199-196 million years ago. Sarcosaurus is one of the earliest known Jurassic theropods, and one of only a handful of theropod genera from this time period. Along with Dracoraptor hanigani it is one of the two described neotheropods from the lowermost Jurassic of the United Kingdom.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
4
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore Ground dwelling, solitary Terrestrial
Sarcosaurus
click to enlarge
Sarcosaurus diagram of known material: reconstruction based on basal Ceratosaurs (such as Berberosaurus and Saltriovenator). The Skull was made to look more generic and less like more derived Ceratosaurs such as Ceratosaurus. "Liassaurus", referred to "cf. Sarcosaurus woodi" and is smaller than the holotype: material in light grey is preserved, but to what extent is uncertain as it is not figured. References: Carrano and Sampson (2004). "A review of coelophysoids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Early Jurassic of Europe, with comments on the late history of the Coelophysoidea." N. Jb. Geol. Palaont. Mh., 2004(9): 537-558. (for figures of the material) theropoddatabase.com/Coelophysoidea.htm#Sarcosauruswoodi (for measurements of "Liassaurus") Allain, Ronan & Tykoski, Ronald & Aquesbi, Najat & Jalil, Nour-Eddine & Monbaron, Michel & Russell, Dale & Taquet, Philippe. (2007). An abelisauroid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Early Jurassic of the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco, and the radiation of Ceratosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27. 10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[610:AADTFT]2.0.CO;2. (for measurements for Berberosaurus) © Eotyrannu5 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Theropoda Unranked clade
›
Neotheropoda Unranked clade
›
Coelophysoidea Superfamily
›
Sarcosaurus Genus
Fossil sites 4 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
4
Geological formations
Blue Lias
1
Broadford Beds
1
Temporal distribution
Sinemurian (199.5–192.9 Ma)
3
Hettangian (201.4–199.5 Ma)
1
Species (3)
Magnosaurus woodwardi subjective synonym of Sarcosaurus woodi 201 Ma
Sarcosaurus andrewsi subjective synonym of Sarcosaurus woodi 201 Ma
Sarcosaurus woodi 201 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
C. W. Andrews. 1921. On some remains of a theropodous dinosaur from the Lower Lias of Barrow-on-Soar. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 9 8:570-576 DOI ↗
Bibliography (4)
M. D. Ezcurra, D. Marke, and S. A. Walsh, S. L. Brusatte. 2023. A revision of the ‘coelophysoid-grade’ theropod specimen from the Lower Jurassic of the Isle of Skye (Scotland). Scottish Journal of Geology 59(1-2) DOI ↗
M. T. Carrano and S. D. Sampson. 2004. A review of coelophysoids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Early Jurassic of Europe, with comments on the late history of the Coelophysoidea. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte 2004(9):537-558 DOI ↗
F. v. Huene. 1932. Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte [The fossil reptile order Saurischia, their development and history]. Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, serie 1 4(1-2):1-361
C. W. Andrews. 1921. On some remains of a theropodous dinosaur from the Lower Lias of Barrow-on-Soar. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 9 8:570-576 DOI ↗