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''Sarcosaurus'' (meaning "flesh lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur, either a coelophysoid or a basal ceratosaur, roughly 3.5 meters long. It lived during the Sinemurian stage of the Early Jurassic, about 194 million years ago. Fossils of ''Sarcosaurus'' were found in the Lower Lias of England. The type species, ''Sarcosaurus woodi'', was first described by Charles William Andrews in 1921 shortly after a partial skeleton had been found by S.L. Wood near Barrow-on-Soar. The generic name is derived from Greek ''sarx'', "flesh". The specific name honours Wood. The holotype, BMNH 4840/1, consists of a pelvis, a vertebra and the upper part of a femur. The preserved length of the femur is 31.5 centimetres.〔Andrews, C.W., 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〕 A second species, ''Sarcosaurus andrewsi'', was named by Friedrich von Huene in 1932,〔von Huene, F., 1932, ''Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte'', Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie 1(4) pp. 361〕 based on a 445 millimetres long tibia, BMNH R3542, described by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1908 and found near Wilmcote.〔Woodward, A.S. 1908. "Note on a megalosaurian tibia from the Lower Lias of Wilmcote, Warwickshire". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History''. 8(1): 257-259〕 Confusingly von Huene in the same publication named the very same fossil ''Magnosaurus woodwardi''. Later he made a choice for ''S. andrewsi'' to be the valid name.〔Huene, F. von, 1956, ''Paläontologie und Phylogenie der niederen Tetrapoden''. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena. 716 pp〕 In 1974 ''S. andrewsi'' was reclassified as ''Megalosaurus andrewsi'' by Michael Waldman, on the probably erroneous assumption it was a megalosaurid.〔Waldman, M. 1974. "Megalosaurids from the Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) of Dorset". ''Paleontology'' 17(2): 325-339〕 A later study concluded the two species to be indistinguishable except for size,〔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.〕 but other authors consider any identity to be unprovable as there are no comparable remains and conclude both species to lack autapomorphies and therefore to be ''nomina dubia''.〔D. Naish and D. M. Martill. 2007. "Dinosaurs of Great Britain and the role of the Geological Society of London in their discovery: basal Dinosauria and Saurischia". ''Journal of the Geological Society, London'' 164: 493-510〕 Von Huene in 1932 referred a partial skeleton from the collection of the Warwick Museum to ''S. woodi'' but the identity is unproven; in 1995 it was given the generic name "Liassaurus"〔Pickering, S. 1995. ''Jurassic Park: Unauthorized Jewish Fractals in Philopatry. A Fractal Scaling in Dinosaurology Project, 2nd revised printing''. Capitola, California. 478 pp〕 but this has remained a ''nomen nudum''. Andrews originally assigned ''Sarcosaurus'' to the Megalosauridae. The first to suggest a more basal position was Samuel Paul Welles who placed it in the Coelophysidae.〔S.P. Welles. 1984. "''Dilophosaurus wetherilli'' (Dinosauria, Theropoda): osteology and comparisons". ''Palaeontographica Abteilung A'' 185: 85-180〕 Later analyses resulted in either a position in the Ceratosauria,〔J A. Gauthier. 1986. "Saurischian monophyly and the origin of birds". In: ''The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight'', K. Padian (ed.), Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 8: 1-55〕 or in the Coelophysoidea.〔M.T. Carrano, J.R. Hutchinson, and S.D. Sampson. 2005. "New information on ''Segisaurus halli'', a small theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Arizona". ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 25 (4): 835-849〕 ==See also== * Timeline of coelophysoid research *Liassaurus 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sarcosaurus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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