Outline: a typical theropod
Tanycolagreus
"long-limbed hunter"
- Lived
- 155 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 4 m (13 ft)
- Group
- Theropods
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Carpenter et al. 2005
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 Tanycolagreus
What it was like
Tanycolagreus was a lightly built predator about 4 meters (13 feet) long, with long legs and long arms ending in grasping hands. It was an early coelurosaur, part of the group that later produced tyrannosaurs and birds.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now Wyoming and Utah. Its bones come from the Morrison Formation, where it lived alongside Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and giant sauropods such as Diplodocus.
How it was found
Carpenter and colleagues named Tanycolagreus in 2005. Its bones were first thought to belong to Coelurus, a similar small predator from the same rocks.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Coelurosauria
Sources: WikidataNamed in: K. Carpenter, C. A. Miles, and K. C. Cloward. 2005. New small theropod from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington