''Erectopus'' (meaning "upright foot") is an extinct genus of basal allosauroid theropod from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and also possibly the Cernavoda Formation of southern

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The type species is ''E. superbus'', which was initially known as a species of '' Megalosaurus''.

Discovery and naming

The holotype, specimen MNHN 2001-4, was discovered between the early 1870s and before 1882 in the

Phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

-bearing beds of La Penthiève (''Mammilatum'' Zone; lower Albian) at

Louppy-le-Château Louppy-le-Château () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, ov ...

in eastern France,Allain, R. (2005). The enigmatic theropod dinosaur ''Erectopus superbus'' (Sauvage, 1882) from the Lower Albian of Louppy-le-Château (Meuse, France). in Carpenter, K. 2005. ''The Carnivorous Dinosaurs'', Indiana University Press: 72-86. which have also produced remains of

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared ...

ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...

s, and

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

s. The fossils originally resided in the private collection of Louis Pierson. The first, two teeth and a vertebra, were first described by

Charles Barrois Charles Eugene Barrois (21 August 18515 November 1939) was a French geologist and palaeontologist. Life Barrois was born at Lille and educated at the Jesuit College of St Joseph in that town, where he studied geology under Professor Jules Goss ...

in 1875. After more remains had been found, in 1882 Henri-Émile Sauvage made them the basis for a new

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

, '' Megalosaurus superbus.''Sauvage, H.-É., (1882), "Recherches sur les reptiles trouvés dans le Gault de l'est du bassin de Paris", ''Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France, série 3'' 2(4): 1-42 In 1923, the material was redescribed 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 ...

, who argued that it could not be included within the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Megalosaurus'' and created for the Pierson theropod a separate genus, naming the species ''Erectopus superbus''.Huene, F. von, (1923), "Carnivorous Saurischia in Europe since the Triassic", ''Bulletin of the Geological Society of America''34: 449-458 In 1932 von Huene concluded that the original fossils described by Barrois were not necessarily of the same species as the later finds.Huene, F. von, (1932). Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte. ''Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie'', ser. 1: 1-361. Assuming that Sauvage had used the former as the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of ''Megalosaurus superbus'', he therefore created another species: ''Erectopus sauvagei''. Von Huene even declined to use the generic name ''Erectopus'' for the first species, indicating it as "Gen. indeterm. ''superbus''", which however does not constitute a valid name. Subsequently, the Pierson collection was dispersed after the death of its owner and the holotype was long believed lost to science after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. However, casts of some of the bones have been located in the

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

(MNHN,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

), and the anterior part of a left

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

, described by Sauvage in 1882, was found through a Parisian

fossil dealer The fossil trade is the purchase and sale of fossils. This is many times done illegally with stolen fossils, and many important scientific specimens are lost each year. The trade is lucrative, and many celebrities collect fossils. The fossil tr ...

in the late 20th century and purchased by Christian de Muison, a

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

at the MNHN. The casts and the incomplete maxilla allowed for a reevaluation of ''Erectopus'' by

Ronan Allain {{Short pages monitor