coelurosaur

coe·lur·o·saur

(sē-lo͝or′ə-sôr′)

Any of various theropod dinosaurs of the diverse group Coelurosauria of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, having a stiff tail, hingelike ankle, usually long forelimbs, and sometimes featherlike structures, and including oviraptor and T. rex.

[From New Latin Coelūrosauria, group name : Greek koilos, hollow; see keuə- in Indo-European roots + Greek ourā, tail; see ors- in Indo-European roots + Greek sauros, lizard.]

coe·lur′o·saur′i·an adj. & n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

coelurosaur

(sɪˈljʊərəˌsɔː)

(Palaeontology) any of various small to very large bipedal carnivorous saurischian dinosaurs belonging to the suborder Theropoda, active in the Triassic and Cretaceous periods; Tyrannosaurus was a coelurosaur, and birds are thought to have evolved from small coelurosaurs

[C20: from New Latin, from Greek koilos hollow + ouros tail + -saur]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mentioned in ?

tetanuran

References in periodicals archive ?

Scientists working on the project discerned from the sample that the tail likely belonged to a juvenile coelurosaur. The dinosaur the tail was attached to was part of a group of theropod dinosaurs-a categorization that includes everything from tyrannosaurs to modern birds.

Scientists Discovered A Fully Preserved Dinosaur Tail Preserved In Amber

The skeletal remains represent a new species of coelurosaur, the clade containing all theropod dinosaurs including T.

New Meat-Eating Dinosaur from Late Jurassic Period Discovered in China

Kirkland describes the new predator, a yet-unnamed type of Coelurosaur, as "the coyote of the Cretaceous." Like coyotes, he speculates, it consumed a variety of prey.

Two new dinosaurs chiseled from fossil gap

The Chinese fossil seems closely related to the coelurosaur Compsagnathus, one of the smallest dinosaurs.

Hints of a downy dinosaur in China

This was most likely a coelurosaur, a bird-like biped that reached about 8 feet in length, Weems says.

A walk along the lakeshore, dinosaur-style

But this feathering has only been found in theropods that are classified as coelurosaurs, a diverse group including animals like T.

1st feathered dinosaur not closely related to birds found in Germany

By the close of the Cretaceous, however, Asia sported a large theropod fauna of tyrannosaurids and other large coelurosaurs that was similar to faunas in North America, but drastically different from those on the southern continents (Africa, South America, India, Madagascar, Australia).

The evolution of large-bodied theropod dinosaurs during the Mesozoic in Asia/ La evolucion de los grandes dinosaurios teropodos durante el Mesozoico de Asia

Of course, the presence of "protofeathers" (and "true" feathers) in non-avialan coelurosaurs (such as Dilong paradoxus, Sinosauropteryx prima, and many others) still puts the origin of feathers before the origin of flight and suggests that the original function of these structures was for thermoregulation.

No direct evidence for feathers in Tyrannosaurus rex

Now, it appears that tyrannosaurs evolved much earlier than that, from a group of small, meat-eating dinos called coelurosaurs.

A dino king's ancestor

rex and its cousins evolved much earlier, from a line of small, meat-eating coelurosaurs. Fossils show that these creatures shared many skeletal features with tyrannosaurs.

Ancestor of kings: early progenitor of T. rex had a crest

* Tyrannosaurs belong to a broader, diverse group of dinosaurs known as the coelurosaurs. Most paleontologists believe this group gave rise to birds.

Feathery find: scientists discover that some dinosaurs sported feathers

Reduction in tail size is first seen in coelurosaurs such as ornithomimids and dromaeosaurs (Gauthier 1986; Gatesy 1990, 1994), which have tails of smaller diameter and fewer segments [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 6 OMITTED].