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sharp-clawed runner
Streptospondylus
Say it like this: “STREP-to-SPON-di-lus”
Streptospondylus altdorfensis
Streptospondylus ate meat and walked on two legs. It lived in the Middle Jurassic · Late Jurassic. Bones have been found in France.
- When
- Middle Jurassic · Late Jurassic (Callovian · Oxfordian) · roughly 165.3 to 154.8 million years ago
- Named in
- 1832 · Meyer, C. E. H.
- Hip height
- 1.9 m · 6 ft
- Length
- 6 m · 20 ft
- Weight
- 500 kg · 1,102 lb
- Found in
- France · Marnes de Dives
- Food and walking
- Carnivore · Two legs
- Kind
- sharp-clawed runner · Theropod
- Family branch
- Megalosauria
The story in short
In 1832, C. E. H. Meyer published the name Streptospondylus. The name means “twisted vertebra.”
Fossils referred to Streptospondylus date to the Middle Jurassic · Late Jurassic (Callovian · Oxfordian), roughly 165.3 to 154.8 million years ago. Finds come from France, including the Marnes de Dives Formation. It was a carnivore and walked on two legs.
Published estimates put Streptospondylus at a length near 6 m, hips about 1.9 m high, and a body mass around 500 kg.
On the family tree it sits in Megalosauria, among the theropod dinosaurs.