Outline: a typical theropod
Eotyrannus
EE-oh-tie-RAN-us
"dawn tyrant"
- Lived
- 133 to 121 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 5 m (16 ft)
- Group
- Theropods
- Found in
- United Kingdom
- Named by
- Hutt et al. 2001
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
125 million years ago
Field notes
About Eotyrannus
What it was like
Eotyrannus was an early relative of the tyrannosaurs, about 5 meters (16 feet) long. Unlike later giants such as Tyrannosaurus, it was lightly built, with long legs and fairly long arms ending in three grasping fingers. It was probably a fast hunter of small and medium prey.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now England. Its bones come from the Wessex Formation, a land of rivers and floodplains. There it shared its world with the fish-eating Baryonyx, the predator Neovenator, the armored Polacanthus and plant eaters such as Mantellisaurus and Hypsilophodon.
How it was found
Hutt and colleagues named Eotyrannus in 2001. It is known from one partial skeleton of a young animal, with pieces of the skull, backbone and limbs.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Tyrannosauroidea
Sources: WikidataNamed in: S. Hutt, D. Naish, and D. M. Martill, M. J. Barker, P. Newbery. 2001. A preliminary account of a new tyrannosauroid theropod from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous) of southern England. Cretaceous Research 22:227-242