Pronunciation: LO-fo-STRO-fee-us
Meaning: Crested vertebrae
Author/s: Ezcurra and Cuny (2007)
Synonyms: Liliensternus airelensis
First Discovery: Normandy, France
Discovery Chart Position: #623
Lophostropheus airelensis
Lophostropheus is a comparatively large relative of Coelophysis and started its afterlife in 1966 as Halticosaurus sp. (Larsonneur and de Lapparent), but became the second species of Liliensternus—Liliensternus airelensis—after a review by Gilles Cuny and Peter Galton in 1993.
Cuny, however, had been haunted since then by distinct features of its neck vertebrae: prominent crests on each end which were absent in Liliensternus, and an extra pair of weight-reducing cavities (cervical pleurocoels). And so, in cahoots with Martin Ezcurra, he named this specimen Lophostropheus airelensis in 2007.
Despite being the best-represented theropod known from the Rhaetian-Hettangian boundary and one of the few dinosaurs that may have survived the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event that erased half of earth's species, Lophostropheus is something of an enigma. It blends ancestral with more specialized features, hinting at a creature in transition: adapting, evolving, and just canny enough to slip through the cracks of catastrophe and into the next chapter of life’s unfolding story.
Cuny, however, had been haunted since then by distinct features of its neck vertebrae: prominent crests on each end which were absent in Liliensternus, and an extra pair of weight-reducing cavities (cervical pleurocoels). And so, in cahoots with Martin Ezcurra, he named this specimen Lophostropheus airelensis in 2007.
Despite being the best-represented theropod known from the Rhaetian-Hettangian boundary and one of the few dinosaurs that may have survived the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event that erased half of earth's species, Lophostropheus is something of an enigma. It blends ancestral with more specialized features, hinting at a creature in transition: adapting, evolving, and just canny enough to slip through the cracks of catastrophe and into the next chapter of life’s unfolding story.
(Crest vertebrae from Moon-Airel)Etymology
Lophostropheus is derived from the Greek "lophos" (crest) and "stropheus" (vertebrae), named for the distinct crest on its vertebrae. The species epithet, airelensis, is derived from "airel" (for the Moon-Airel Formation where it was discovered) and the Latin "-ensis" (from).
Discovery
The remains of Lophostropheus were discovered at Airel Quarry in the Moon-Airel Formation, southeast of the Cotentin peninsula in the Carentan basin, Normandy, France, by Claude Pareyn in 1959. The holotype (housed at the University of Caen, but lacking a collection number) consists of one tooth, five cervical (neck) vertebrae, two dorsal (back) vertebrae,
four sacral (hip) vertebrae, 20? caudal (tail) vertebrae, pelvic bones (partial ilia, ischia and pubes) and an unidentifiable bone fragment.
