Tyrannosauripus
Encyclopedia
Tyrannosauripus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 footprint. It was discovered by Thulborn & Wade in 1984.

Discovery

In the 1980s palaeontologists first studied a place in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 called Lark Quarry
Lark Quarry
Lark Quarry in Australia is the site of the world's only known record of a dinosaur stampede. Fossilised footprints have been interpreted as a predator stalking and causing a chaotic stampede of around 150 two-legged dinosaurs....

. There they found three dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 ichnogenera. One set of tracks belongs to a small coelurosaur – Skartopus; a second belonged to a hypsilophodontid called Wintonopus
Wintonopus
Wintonopus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint.-References:...

; the third was of a large theropod, Tyrannosauripus.

Amblydactylus

New research made by palaeontologists from Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, states, that the third set of tracks did not belong to theropod at all. They say that "exists strong morphological similarity between Tyrannosauropus , and iguanodontian ichnotaxon Amblydactylus gethingi".

Muttaburasaurus

The lead author of the research, Anthony Romilio, howewer believes that Lark Quarry footprints are from another ornithopod, Muttaburrasaurus langdoni, whose remains were found in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. He states:"Making the distinction between the three-toed tracks of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaurs and the three-toed tracks of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs can be quite difficult. This confusion has led to numerous ornithopod dinosaur tracks being incorrectly identified as belonging to theropods, and vice versa."

External links

  • http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2010/12/18/4706585.html
  • http://www.smh.com.au/travel/activity/active/land-of-the-giants-20081113-65cf.html
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