Elaphrosaurus bambergi Janensch, 1920

Rauhut, Oliver W. M., 2003, The interrelationships and evolution of basal theropod dinosaurs, Special papers in palaeontology 69, pp. 1-213 : 26

Elaphrosaurus bambergi Janensch, 1920

Age . Kimmeridgian.

Occurrence. Middle Dinosaur beds, Tendaguru, Tanzania.

Diagnosis. Cervical vertebrae with thin lateroventral laminae bordering the posterior pleurocoel ventrally; cervical vertebrae strongly concave ventrally, the ventral margin arching above the mid-height of the anterior articular facet at its highest point; scapular blade broader than height of vertebral column; brevis fossa of ilium extremely widened so that the brevis shelf forms an almost horizontal lateral flange.

Remarks. Elaphrosaurus bambergi is known from a partial postcranial skeleton from the famous dinosaur beds of Tendaguru, Tanzania. It was first described briefly by Janensch in 1920, followed by a detailed description in 1925 and some additional notes on its anatomy in 1929. In the latter paper, Janensch referred previously unrecognized ribs and pectoral girdle elements, as well as an isolated left radius to the same species. Since the ribs and pectoral girdle are from the type locality and probably even from the type specimen, their referral is accepted here. The radius, however, came from another locality in the Upper Dinosaur beds, while the holotype is from the slightly older Middle Dinosaur beds. Since the radius is, furthermore, not preserved in the type, the element from the Upper Dinosaur beds (MB R. 1755) cannot be shown to belong to Elaphrosaurus with any certainty.

Nopcsa (1928) first referred Elaphrosaurus bambergi to the Ornithomimidae , a view that became widely accepted in the 1970s-1980s (Russell 1972; Russell et al. 1980; Galton 1982; Barsbold and Osmólska 1990; Smith and Galton 1990). However, the o rn ithomimid status of Elaphrosaurus has recently been questioned by several authors (Paul 1988«; Holtz 1994; Sereno 1997; Rauhut 1998), who argued for close relationships with more basal taxa. Therefore,. bambergi is treated separately here.