''Coeluroides '' ("hollow form") is an extinct genus of

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

dinosaur that lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Period in what is now

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is based solely on the holotype caudal

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

e GSI K27/562, K27/574 and K27/595, discovered in a layer of the

Lameta Formation The Lameta Formation, also known as the Infratrappean Beds, is a sedimentary geological formation found in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, India, associated with the Deccan Traps. It is of Maastrichtian age (Late Cretaceous), and is nota ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, ''C. largus'', was described by

Friedrich von Huene Friedrich von Huene, born Friedrich Richard von Hoinigen, (March 22, 1875 – April 4, 1969) was a German paleontologist who renamed more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe. He also made key contributions about v ...

and

Charles Alfred Matley Charles Alfred Matley (1866–1947) was a British paleontologist and geologist in India, the British West Indies and Wales. Matley was educated at Birmingham University, and earned a doctorate in geology (D.Sc.) from the University of London in J ...

in 1933. When fully grown, ''Coeluroides'' is estimated at long and perhaps in weight, similar to but larger than ''

Jubbulpuria ''Jubbulpuria'' ("Jubbulpore one") is the name given to a dubious genus of small dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of India. The genus was in 1932 named by Friedrich von Huene. The generic name refers to Jabalpur in India, in the vicinity of whi ...

''. ''Coeluroides'' was long considered a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'' because of sparse remains, but a 2004 overview of Indian theropods from the Lameta Formation found it to be probably valid. An SVP 2012 abstract considers it as a possible senior synonym of ''

Ornithomimoides ''Ornithomimoides'' ("bird mimic-like") is a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur, from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage, sometime between 70 and 66 mya) Lameta Formation of India. Two species have been identified, the type species ''O. mob ...

''.Wilson. (2012). Small theropod dinosaurs from the Latest Cretaceous of India. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Program and Abstracts'' 2012, 194.

References

Ceratosaurs Dinosaurs of India and Madagascar Late Cretaceous dinosaurs Nomina dubia Fossil taxa described in 1933 Taxa named by Friedrich von Huene Taxa named by Charles Alfred Matley {{theropod-stub

See also

References