Open Paleo

Sarcolestes

Lydekker, 1893 SAHR-ko-LES-teez

From Ancient Greek sarx (flesh) and lestes (robber); meaning "flesh robber".

165.3–161.5 million years ago Callovian, Middle Jurassic
Middle Jurassic stages

Sarcolestes is an extinct genus of ankylosaurian ornithischian dinosaur from the Oxford Clay of England. The current type and only species is S. leedsi, and the holotype is a single partial left mandible. The genus and species were named in 1893 by Richard Lydekker, who thought they belonged to a theropod.

Diagnosis

  1. Mandibular symphysis with marked deflection, deflected portion falling away to extremity of shallow symphysis
  2. Alveolar margin with abrupt deflection near middle, penetrated by approximately 19 complete dental alveoli extending to symphysis extremity
  3. Teeth with laterally compressed crowns, trenchant serrated fore-and-aft edges, and sharp point; marginal serrations relatively large and oblique to long axis
  4. Tooth crown recurved with prominent vertical ridge on outer surface continuing to summit
  5. Dental succession with replacing teeth perforating jaw internally, subsequently breaking into main alveoli (unlike crocodilians)
  6. Theropod characters: quadratic cavity narrower than crocodilians, articular production behind cavity less pronounced, surangular upper margin rises above quadratic cavity plane

Species

Sarcolestes leedsi Lydekker, 1893

Type species

Named for Alfred Nicholson Leeds, the collector who discovered the holotype specimen in the Oxford Clay of England.

Holotype
BMNH R2682 , Natural History Museum
Material
Left ramus of mandible (anterior and posterior extremities); imperfect condition.
Horizon
Peterborough Member, Oxford Clay Formation, Callovian, Middle Jurassic , 165.3–161.5 million years ago
Locality
Fletton, City of Peterborough, United Kingdom

References

  1. Lydekker, R. (1893). On the Jaw of a New Carnivorous Dinosaur from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 49(1-4): 284-287. Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/gsl.jgs.1893.049.01-04.46 lydekker1893b
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length estimate.

    jones2026a
  3. Vickaryous, M. K.; Maryańska, T.; Weishampel, D. B. (2004). Ankylosauria. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 363-392. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Assigns Sarcolestes, once suggested to be a nodosaurid, to Ankylosauria incertae sedis, as one of the oldest known ankylosaurs.

    vickaryous2004a
  4. Raven, T. J.; Barrett, P. M.; Joyce, C. B.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2023). The phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the armoured dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 21(1): 2205433. doi:10.1080/14772019.2023.2205433

    Recovers Sarcolestes as the earliest-diverging ankylosaur, possibly from lack of character data.

    raven2023a
  5. Naish, D.; Martill, D. M. (2008). Dinosaurs of Great Britain and the role of the Geological Society of London in their discovery: Ornithischia. Journal of the Geological Society 165(3): 613-623. Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/0016-76492007-154

    Records the earlier nodosaurid readings and follows Vickaryous and colleagues (2004) in leaving the genus at Ankylosauria incertae sedis.

    naish2008a