Manospondylus gigas Cope 1892

Osborn, H. F., 1917, Skeletal Adaptations of Ornitholestes, Struthiomimus, Tyrannosaurus, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 35, pp. 733-771 : 761-762

Indeterminate type of Manospondylus gigas Cope 1892 .1

The genotype ( Amer. Mus. Cope Coll. 3982 ) of Manospondylus originally consisted of two dorsal vertebrae, which Cope recorded verbally to Hatcher2 as from South Dakota. Of these original two dorsal vertebrae one was figured by Hatcher (op. cit. p. 114, fig. 105) and correctly referred to the Theropoda. Unfortunately the remaining vertebra has been misplaced in or lost from the American Museum collections. It most nearly resembles in size and other characters the posterior cervical or first dorsal of Tyrannosaurus rex ( Amer. Mus. 5866 ). The comparison with the measurements given by Cope is as follows:

This type is so incomplete and so imperfectly preserved that the genus and species which were founded upon it are regarded as indeterminate.