Proceratosaurus

Type Species: Proceratosaurus bradleyi

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Theropoda – Tetanurae – Coelurosauria – Tyrannosauroidea - Proceratosauridae

Time Period: Middle Jurassic

Location: Europe (England)

Diet: Carnivore 

Proceratosaurus was a ten-foot-long theropod that had a slender body and a crest on its snout; the crest likely served display purposes for mating and species recognition. This theropod prowled the wooded islands of prehistoric England, and it lived alongside sauropods such at Cetiosauriscus, the stegosaur Lexovisaurus, the early ornithopod Callovosaurus, and the early ankylosaur Sarcolestes. Though it was originally classified as an ancestor of the Late Jurassic Ceratosaurus, due to the similarity of their snout crests, it’s now consider a coelurosaur, an emerging theropod lineage that overtook the dominant megalosaurs in the Late Jurassic. Not only that, but Proceratosaurus is also considered the earliest tyrannosaur. The Tyrannosauroids emerged in Laurasia in the Jurassic Period, and Proceratosaurus is the earliest known. By the end of the Cretaceous Period, tyrannosauroids were the dominant terrestrial predators in the northern hemisphere. Tyrannosauroid fossils have been discovered in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia, implying that they diversified and succeeded worldwide. Tyrannosauroids came in many shapes and sizes and are characterized by numerous skeletal features, especially in the skull and pelvis. They emerged in the Jurassic as small theropods with long, three-fingered forelimbs; tyrannosauroids of the Late Cretaceous blossomed to massive sizes and became some of the largest terrestrial predators the planet’s ever seen (these ‘giant’ tyrannosauroids, such as the infamous Tyrannosaurus, lost the long, three-fingered forelimbs to short, two-fingered ones). Primitive feathers have been identified in two species and may have been present in other tyrannosauroids, too. Many species – such as Proceratosaurus – had bony crests in many shapes and sizes, and these likely served for display.