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sharp-clawed runner
Altispinax
Say it like this: “AL-ti-SPIEN-aks”
Altispinax dunkeri
Altispinax ate meat and walked on two legs. It lived in the Early Cretaceous. Bones have been found in the United Kingdom.
- When
- Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) · roughly 137.1 to 132.6 million years ago
- Named in
- 1923 · Huene, F. V.
- Hip height
- 2 m · 7 ft
- Length
- 8 m · 26 ft
- Weight
- 1 tonnes
- Found in
- the United Kingdom · Wadhurst Clay
- Food and walking
- Carnivore · Two legs
- Kind
- sharp-clawed runner · Theropod
- Family branch
- Tetanurae
The story in short
The genus Altispinax dates to 1923, the year F. V. Huene described it. The name means “with high spines.”
It lived in the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian), roughly 137.1 to 132.6 million years ago. Finds come from the United Kingdom, including the Wadhurst Clay Formation. It was a carnivore and walked on two legs.
Published estimates put Altispinax at a length near 8 m, hips about 2 m high, and a body mass around 1 tonnes.
On the family tree it sits in Tetanurae, among the theropod dinosaurs.
Close relatives
Chienkosaurus
Chienkosaurus ceratosauroides
Late Jurassic
Chuandongocoelurus
Chuandongocoelurus primitivus
Middle Jurassic · Late Jurassic (Bajocian–Oxfordian) · roughly 170.9 to 154.8 million years ago
Cruxicheiros
Cruxicheiros newmanorum
Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) · roughly 168.2 to 165.3 million years ago