Epanterias

Epanterias is a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Tithonian age Upper Jurassic upper Morrison Formation of Garden Park, Colorado. It was described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1878. The type species is Epanterias amplexus.^[1] This genus is based on what is now AMNH 5767, parts of three vertebrae, a coracoid, and a metatarsal.^[2] Although Cope thought it was a sauropod,^[1] it was later shown to be a theropod.^[2] Gregory S. Paul reassessed the material as pertaining to a large species of Allosaurus in 1988 (which he classified as Allosaurus amplexus).^[3] Other authors have gone further and considered E. amplexus as simply a large individual of Allosaurus fragilis.^[4] In 2010, Gregory S. Paul and Kenneth Carpenter noted that the E. amplexus specimen comes from higher in the Morrison Formation than the type specimen of Allosaurus fragilis, and is therefore "probably a different taxon". They also considered its holotype specimen not diagnostic and classified it as a nomen dubium.^[5]

Epanterias Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 146.8 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Illustration of the holotype
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Family:	†Allosauridae
Genus:	†Epanterias Cope, 1878
Species:	†E. amplexus
Binomial name
†Epanterias amplexus Cope, 1878
Synonyms
Allosaurus amplexus (Cope, 1878) Paul, 1988

Etymology

The generic epithet translates to "buttressed" in Greek, in reference to the vertebrae. The word amplexus refers to the copulatory position of amphibians in which males clasp their mates. Therefore, the specific epithet means "clasping buttressed vertebrae" in Latin.

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References

1. Cope, Edward Drinker (1878). "A new opisthocoelous dinosaur". American Naturalist. 12 (6): 406–408. doi:10.1086/272127.
2. Osborn, Henry Fairfield; Mook, Charles C. (1921). "Camarasaurus, Amphicoelias, and other sauropods of Cope". Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. New Series. 3 (3): 247–387.
3. Paul, Gregory S. (1988). "Genus Allosaurus". Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 307–313. ISBN 978-0-671-61946-6.
4. Holtz, Thomas R. Jr.; Molnar, Ralph E.; Currie, Philip J. (2004). Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 71–110. ISBN 978-0-520-24209-8.
5. Paul, G.S. and Carpenter, K. (2010). "Case 3506: Allosaurus Marsh, 1877 (Dinosauria, Theropoda): proposed conservation of usage by designation of a neotype for its type species Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877." Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 67(1): 53-56.

External links

• Article about Epanterias and its taxonomic validity - web Dinosauria (in Czech)