Journal
ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
Volume 158, Issue 1, Pages 155-195Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00591.x
Keywords
Bathonian; biogeography; Coelurosauria; phylogeny; Proceratosauridae; Tyrannosauroidea
Categories
Funding
- Natural History Museum Department of Palaeontology Research Fund
- European Community [GB-TAF 3232]
- Natural History Museum
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The cranial osteology of the small theropod dinosaur Proceratosaurus from the Bathonian of Minchinhampton, England, is described in detail, based on new preparation and computed tomography (CT) scan images of the type, and only known, specimen. Proceratosaurus is an unusual theropod with markedly enlarged external nares and a cranial crest starting at the premaxillary-nasal junction. The skull is highly pneumatic, with pneumatized nasals, jugals, and maxillae, as well as a highly pneumatic braincase, featuring basisphenoid, anterior tympanic, basipterygoid, and carotid recesses. The dentition is unusual, with small premaxillary teeth and much larger lateral teeth, with a pronounced size difference of the serrations between the mesial and distal carina. The first dentary tooth is somewhat procumbent and flexed anteriorly. Phylogenetic analysis places Proceratosaurus in the Tyrannosauroidea, in a monophyletic clade Proceratosauridae, together with the Oxfordian Chinese taxon Guanlong. The Bathonian age of Proceratosaurus extends the origin of all clades of basal coelurosaurs back into the Middle Jurassic, and provides evidence for an early, Laurasia-wide, dispersal of the Tyrannosauroidea during the late Middle to Late Jurassic. (C) 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 158, 155-195. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00591.x
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