Theropod dinosaur diversity and palaeobiology in the Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous) of England: evidence from a previously undescribed tibia
A robust, partial right tibia of a theropod dinosaur (Natural History Museum London collections, BMNH R9385) is described for the first time. The specimen was collected at Hastings, Sussex (England) in the last century, and is among the oldest known of English Wealden Group theropods. It represents a tetanuran theropod that may have been about 3 m in total length, and is distinct from all currently known Wealden theropods for which tibiae have been described. The present specimen is significant palaeobiologically in exhibiting a series of theropod tooth marks on its caudal surface, indicating predation or scavenging by another theropod.
Baryonyx, a remarkable new theropod dinosaur
An extremely large claw bone, some 30 cm long, was found in Wealden (Lower Cretaceous) deposits in a Surrey claypit in January 1983. This led to the discovery the following month of the well-preserved skeleton of a new large theropod dinosaur. Only one other theropod specimen comprising more than a few bones had ever been found in Britain, and that discovery was more than a century ago. Indeed, no large theropod, reasonably complete, had previously been discovered in Lower Cretaceous rocks anywhere in the world. Our study so far suggests that the Surrey dinosaur was a typical large theropod in certain respects, resembling, for example Allosaurus1. In several other respects, however, it differs sufficiently from all known dinosaurs to merit designation as the representative of a new species, genus and family.
NEW JURASSIC DINOSAUR FROM THE KAYENTA FORMATION OF ARIZONA
The Kayenta formation overlies the Chinle formation in the Painted Desert of Arizona. The Kayenta contains the earliest American crocodile (Protosuchus richardsoni Brown), a new species of megalosaurian dinosaur, and many tracks made by this or a similar species. The dinosaur indicates an Early or Middle Jurassic age for the Kayenta formation at this locality.