Eotyrannus (meaning “dawn tyrant”) was a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur hailing from the Early Cretaceous Wessex Formation beds, included in Wealden Group, located in the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The remains (MIWG1997.550), consisting of assorted skull, axial skeleton and appendicular skeleton elements, from a juvenile or subadult, found in a plant debris clay bed, were described by Hutt et al. in early 2001. The etymology of the generic name refers to the animals classification as an early tyrannosaur or “tyrant lizard”, while the specific name honors the discoverer of the fossil.

Eotyrannus

Eotyrannus has the following tyrannosauroid characters: serrated premaxillary teeth with a D cross section, proportionally elongate tibiae and metatarsals. Primitive characters for Tyrannosauroidea are the elongate neck vertebrae and the long, well-developed arms forelimbs along with the undecorated dorsal surface of the skull, unlike the more advanced tyrannosaurids. However this animal, proportionally, has one of the longest hands among non-avialan theropods known to date. This theropod would be a probable predator of such herbivorous dinosaurs as Hypsilophodon.

FACT SHEET

Meaning – Eotyrannus means “dawn tyrant” or “early tyrant”
Pronounced – e-o-tie-RAN-us
Named By – Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker and Newbery
When Named – 2001

DIET: Carnivore (meat-eater)
SIZE: Length – 15 ft (4.5 m) long
Weight – ?
WHEN IT LIVED: Middle Cretaceous period, about 120 to 125 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED: Fossils have been found in the Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight, off the coast of Great Britain, Europe.

FOSSILS:

What was Found – A 40-percent complete fossil was found in 1997 (including the front half of the skull).
Who Found the Fossils – Eotyrannus was found by a team headed by Darren Naish (Univ. of Portsmouth).

CLASSIFICATION:
• Kingdom Animalia (animals)
• Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
• Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
• Order Saurischia – lizard-hipped dinosaurs
• Suborder Theropoda – bipedal carnivores
• Tetanura – advanced theropods
• Infraorder Coelurosauria – lightly-built fast-running predators with hollow bones and large brains
• Superfamily Maniraptoriformes – advanced coelurosaurs with a fused wrist bone
• Family Tyrannosauroidea – huge predators with small arms and two-fingered hands (the third finger was very tiny). Tyrannosaurids include T. rex, Albertosaurus, Alectrosaurus, Alioramus, Chingkankousaurus, Daspletosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Prodeinodon, Tarbosaurus, etc.
• Genus Eotyrannus
• Species E. lengi (type species named by Hutt, Naish, Martill, Barker & Newbery, 2001), named to honor Gavin Leng, who found the first fossil on the Isle of Wight.