Open Paleo

Sciurumimus

Rauhut et al., 2012 SIGH-oor-uh-MIEM-us

Named for its squirrel-like tail; from Latin Sciurus (the tree squirrel genus) and Greek mimos, meaning "mimic" — the name means "squirrel mimic"

154.8–149.2 million years ago Kimmeridgian, Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic stages

Sciurumimus is an extinct genus of tetanuran theropod from the Late Jurassic Torleite Formation of Germany. It is known from a single juvenile specimen representing the type species, Sciurumimus albersdoerferi, which was found in a limestone quarry close to Painten in Lower Bavaria. The specimen was preserved with traces of feather-like filaments.

Under dispute

Sciurumimus albersdoerferi is based on a juvenile skeleton, and its affinities are contested. It was described as a basal megalosauroid (Rauhut and colleagues, 2012) and recovered within Megalosauroidea by later analyses (Cau, 2024), but Hartman and colleagues (2019) instead recovered it as a compsognathid coelurosaur, seven steps from Megalosauroidea.

Diagnosis

  1. Anterior dorsal lip of the ilium (autapomorphy)
  2. Complete absence of the fourth digit of the manus
  3. Type 1 filamentous plumage preserved at tail base and body parts
  4. Slender and unserrated premaxillary teeth; strongly recurved maxillary teeth with distal serrations only
  5. Medially closed maxillary fenestra; offset of maxillary fenestra from anterior rim of antorbital fossa

Species

Sciurumimus albersdoerferi Rauhut et al., 2012

Type species

Named in honor of Raimund Albersdörfer, who made the specimen available for study.

Holotype
BMMS BK 11 , Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum
Material
Complete skeleton of juvenile individual, preserved on a single slab, with unfused neurocentral sutures, unfused sacral vertebrae, and unfused braincase elements
Horizon
Torleite Formation, Kimmeridgian, Late Jurassic , 154.8–149.2 million years ago
Locality
Rygol Quarry, Painten, Bavaria, Germany

References

  1. Foth, C.; Haug, C.; Haug, J. T.; Tischlinger, H.; Rauhut, O. W. M. (2020). Two of a Feather: A Comparison of the Preserved Integument in the Juvenile Theropod Dinosaurs Sciurumimus and Juravenator from the Kimmeridgian Torleite Formation of Southern Germany. The Evolution of Feathers: From Their Origin to the Present 79-101. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27223-4_6

    Places the holotype in the Torleite Formation.

    foth2020a
  2. Niebuhr, B.; Pürner, T. (2014). Plattenkalk und Frankendolomit – Lithostratigraphie der Weißjura-Gruppe der Frankenalb (außeralpiner Oberjura, Bayern) [Plattenkalk and Franconian dolomite: lithostratigraphy of the White Jura Group of the Franconian Alb (extra-Alpine Upper Jurassic, Bavaria)]. Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften 83: 5-72. doi:10.1127/sdgg/83/2014/5

    Sets out the lithostratigraphy of the Weißjura Group of the Franconian Alb, including the Torleite Formation.

    niebuhr2014a
  3. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Foth, C.; Tischlinger, H.; Norell, M. A. (2012). Exceptionally preserved juvenile megalosauroid theropod dinosaur with filamentous integument from the Late Jurassic of Germany. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(29): 11746-11751. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1203238109 rauhut2012a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates, and the appearance features.

    jones2026c
  5. Cau, A. (2024). A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 63(1): 1-19. doi:10.4435/BSPI.2024.08

    Recovered Sciurumimus within Megalosauroidea.

    cau2024a
  6. 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

    Maniraptoromorph analysis recovered Sciurumimus as a compsognathid coelurosaur.

    hartman2019a