Becklespinax

Taxobox
name = "Becklespinax"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Theropoda
superfamilia = Allosauroidea?
genus = "Becklespinax"
genus_authority = Olshevsky, 1991
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision ="B. altispinax" (Paul, 1988) (type)

"Becklespinax" is a genus of large theropod dinosaur based on a type specimen of three tall-spined vertebrae found in 1884 in Sussex, England by the fossil collector Samuel H. Beckles. The fossils are believed to have been from the Early Cretaceous.

Its classification has proved difficult. The vertebrae were originally assumed to be linked with some theropod teeth and the result named "Altispinax dunkeri", a species of the Superfamily Megalosauroidea. Later this assignment was shown to be unjustified, as the vertebrae identified as belonging to a new species of "Acrocanthosaurus", "Acrocanthosaurus altispinax". In 1991 it was reassigned to a new sinraptorid genus, "Becklespinax", by George Olshevsky, in honour of its discoverer, Beckles. The type species is "B. altispinax".

This animal was probably on the order of 8 metres (26 feet) long and 1.5 tonnes (1.5 tons) in mass.

References

Holtz, T.R., Molnar, R.E., and Currie, P.J. (2004). "Basal Tetanurae". In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, & H. Osmolska (eds.), "The Dinosauria" (2nd Ed). University of California Press, Berkeley 71-110.

External links

* [http://dml.cmnh.org/1997Feb/msg00333.html "Becklespinax"] Dinosaur Mailing List Archive, 18 Feb 1997 15:42, Cleveland Museum of Natural History