Outline: a typical theropod
Elaphrosaurus
el-AF-roh-SORE-us
"lightweight lizard"
- Lived
- 152 to 149 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 6.2 m (20 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Noasauridae
- Found in
- Tanzania
- Named by
- Janensch 1920
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
150 million years ago
Field notes
About Elaphrosaurus
What it was like
Elaphrosaurus was a slender, lightly built theropod about 6.2 meters (20 feet) long. It had a long body, a shallow chest, long legs and very short arms. No skull has been found, so its head and diet are uncertain.
Some of its closest relatives, such as Limusaurus, lost their teeth and may have eaten plants, so scientists are not sure whether Elaphrosaurus was a hunter at all.
Its world
It lived about 152 to 149 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic, in what is now Tanzania. The Tendaguru rocks it comes from were home to the giant sauropods Giraffatitan, Dicraeosaurus and Tornieria, the spiky stegosaur Kentrosaurus, and the large predators Ceratosaurus and Torvosaurus.
How it was found
Janensch named Elaphrosaurus in 1920, from a nearly complete headless skeleton dug up by a German expedition. It is still one of the best known members of its family.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Noasauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: W. Janensch. 1920. Ueber Elaphrosaurus bambergi und die Megalosaurier aus den Tendaguru-Schichten Deutsch-Ostafrikas [On Elaphrosaurus bambergi and the megalosaurs of the Tendaguru Formation of German East Africa]. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin 1920:225-235