Stokesosaurus by Moondawg

Stokesosaurus ("Stokes' lizard") was a small early tyrannosaur from the Late Jurassic period of Utah.

It was named after Utah geologist William Lee Stokes.

The holotype consists of a hip bone, originally thought to belong to the possible early

tyrannosaur Iliosuchus (Galton, 1976), as well as several vertebrae and a partial

braincase (Chure and Madsen, 1998). Another illium referred to this dinosaur (Foster and

Chure, 2000) is lost but may actually belong to the related Aviatyrannis, and a premaxilla

thought to belong to Illiosuchus (Madsen, 1974) is actually from Tanycolagreus.

Stokesosaurus and Tanycolagreus are about the same size, and it is possible that the

latter is a junior synonym of the former. However, the ilium (the best known element of

Stokesosaurus) of Tanycolagreus has never been recovered, making direct comparison

difficult.

Inspired by the Zoo Tek Brains Trust