Tyrannosauropus
Pronunciation
Tie-ran-o-sore-o-pus
Meaning
Tyrant lizard foot
Period
Cretaceous (145 - 66mya)
Ichnospecies in Australia
Not specific.
Ichnospecies meaning
N/A
Origin and other locations
The footprints that were first given the name Tyrannosauropus were first described but not named by William Peterson in 1924; they were found in mines in Utah and Colorado, in rocks of Cretaceous age. In 1955, Jacques Lessertisseur gave these footprints the name Tyrannosauripus; in 1971, Hartmut Haubold in 1971 gave them the name Tyrannosauropus, evidently unaware of Lessertisseur’s earlier name.
Australian use and location
Lark Quarry Qld (Thulborn & Wade 1984).
Description
Large theropod trackways 50–55cm long, originally thought to be evidence of a Tyrannosaurus-sized theropod (although not Tyrannosaurus itself). These tracks are now thought to belong to a smaller theropod dinosaur with large feet, a member of the megaraptoran family (possibly an Australovenator, which is known from rocks of the same age in Central West Queensland).