Open Paleo

Lourinhanosaurus

Mateus, 1998 loh-reen-YAH-no-SAWR-us

Named for Lourinhã, the town in Portugal near where the fossils were found, combined with Greek 'sauros' meaning 'lizard', hence 'Lourinhã lizard'. The species name honors Portuguese paleontologist Miguel Telles Antunes.

154.8–143.1 million years ago Kimmeridgian–Tithonian, Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic stages

Lourinhanosaurus was a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period (Kimmeridgian/Tithonian) in Portugal. It is one of many large predators discovered at the Lourinhã Formation and probably competed with coeval Torvosaurus gurneyi, Allosaurus europaeus, and Ceratosaurus.

Under dispute

The affinities of Lourinhanosaurus are highly uncertain. It has been recovered at the base of Avetheropoda (Mateus, 1998), as a metriacanthosaurid allosauroid (Benson, 2010), weakly allied with Coelurosauria (Carrano and colleagues, 2012; Rauhut and colleagues, 2016), and, in one implied-weights analysis, as a megalosaurid (Rauhut and colleagues, 2024). It is placed conservatively at Avetheropoda incertae sedis, the least-inclusive clade common to most competing hypotheses.

Diagnosis

  1. All vertebral centra longer than tall
  2. Neural spines of anterior caudal vertebrae with well-developed spike-like anterior process
  3. Pubic blade perforated by large vertical ellipsoidal foramen
  4. Lesser trochanter well separated from main body of femur in lateral view

Species

Lourinhanosaurus antunesi Mateus, 1998

Type species

Named for Portuguese paleontologist Miguel Telles Antunes, honored in the genitive Latin '-i' suffix.

Holotype
ML 370 , Museu da Lourinhã
Material
Axial skeleton: six cervical, five dorsal, five sacral, 14 caudal vertebrae with chevrons. Appendicular: femora, proximal tibia and fibula, pelvic elements, metatarsus. 32 gastroliths.
Horizon
Praia Azul Member, Lourinhã Formation, Kimmeridgian–Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 154.8–143.1 million years ago
Locality
Peralta, Lisbon, Portugal

Notable specimens

  • ML 565

    Museu da Lourinhã Found 1993 reproductive

    A nest of around 100 eggs, some containing embryonic bones and skin, found in 1993 at Paimogo beach near Lourinhã and assigned to L. antunesi in 2001. Preserved basement scales were reported in the scapular region of an embryo.

    Mateus et al. (2001)Hendrickx et al. (2022)

References

  1. Mateus, O. (1998). Lourinhanosaurus antunesi, a new Upper Jurassic allosauroid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Lourinhã, Portugal. Memórias da Academia de Ciências de Lisboa 37: 111-124.

    Gives the site as "Peralta, about 75 Km NW of Lisbon (Portugal), near Lourinhã (UTM coordinates: MD707443)", naming no datum.

    mateus1998a
  2. Mateus, O.; Dinis, J.; Cunha, P. P. (2017). The Lourinhã Formation: the Upper Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous of the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal - landscapes where dinosaurs walked. Ciências da Terra - Earth Sciences Journal 19(1): 75-97. doi:10.21695/cterra/esj.v19i1.355

    Names the holotype's horizon the Praia Azul Member, the unit the describing paper called the Sobral unit.

    mateus2017a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026c
  4. Mateus, O.; Antunes, M. T.; Taquet, P. (2001). Dinosaur ontogeny: the case of Lourinhanosaurus (Late Jurassic, Portugal). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(3, Supplement): 78A.

    Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting abstract.

    mateus2001b
  5. Hendrickx, C.; Bell, P. R.; Pittman, M.; Milner, A. R. C.; Cuesta, E.; O'Connor, J.; Loewen, M.; Currie, P. J.; Mateus, O.; Kaye, T. G.; Delcourt, R. (2022). Morphology and distribution of scales, dermal ossifications, and other non-feather integumentary structures in non-avialan theropod dinosaurs. Biological Reviews 97(3): 960-1004. doi:10.1111/brv.12829

    First report of preserved basement scales, in the scapular region of an embryo.

    hendrickx2022a
  6. Carrano, M. T.; Benson, R. B. J.; Sampson, S. D. (2012). The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10(2): 211-300. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.630927

    Tetanuran phylogeny weakly allying Lourinhanosaurus with Coelurosauria.

    carrano2012a
  7. Hartman, S.; Mortimer, M.; Wahl, W. R.; Lomax, D. R.; Lippincott, J.; Lovelace, D. M. (2019). A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight. PeerJ 7: e7247. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247

    Paravian phylogeny bearing on Lourinhanosaurus's coelurosaurian affinities.

    hartman2019a
  8. Benson, R. B. J. (2010). A description of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158(4): 882-935. Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00569.x

    Recovered Lourinhanosaurus with Metriacanthosaurus and Sinraptor.

    benson2010c
  9. Rauhut, O. M.; Hübner, T.; Lanser, K. (2016). A new megalosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Middle Jurassic (Callovian) of north-western Germany: Implications for theropod evolution and faunal turnover in the Jurassic. Palaeontologia Electronica 19(2): 26A. Coquina Press. doi:10.26879/654

    Recovered Lourinhanosaurus within Coelurosauria.

    rauhut2016a
  10. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Bakirov, A. A.; Wings, O.; Fernandes, A. E.; Hübner, T. R. (2024). A new theropod dinosaur from the Callovian Balabansai Formation of Kyrgyzstan. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201(4). Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae090

    Recovered Lourinhanosaurus within Megalosauridae under implied weights.

    rauhut2024a