Velocipes

Velocipes (meaning "quick foot") is a saurischian dinosaur genus from the Late Triassic that may have been a theropod; its fossils were found in the Norian-age Lissauer Breccia of southern Poland.[1]

Velocipes
Temporal range: Late Triassic, Norian
Fibula of the holotype.
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Eusaurischia
Clade: Theropoda (?)
Genus: †Velocipes
Huene, 1932
Species:
†V. guerichi
Binomial name
†Velocipes guerichi
Huene, 1932

Upon discovery, Velocipes was thought to have been a coelurosaur, but more recent studies have shown that Velocipes was probably a basal theropod or dinosauriform.[1]

History and taxonomy

The type species, V. guerichi, was first described by Huene in 1932 as a coelurosaur, based on GPIM UH no. 252, which consists of the proximal portion of a very poorly preserved fibula that was discovered in the Lissauer Breccia of southern Poland by Georg Gürich around 1884;[2][3] the bone was described but not named in 1884.[4] The bone was damaged during the Second World War and was thought to have been destroyed until it was rediscovered in 2012 by D. Mazurek.[5] In 1956, von Huene placed Velocipes in the Halticosauridae, which has since become monotypic to only include Halticosaurus.[6] In 1984, Samuel Paul Welles considered Velocipes to be synonymous with Liliensternus.[7]

A later paper, published in 2000 by Rauhut and Hungerbuhler, claimed that the only specimen of this animal was not well preserved enough to be confidently identified as part of a fibula, and classified the genus as an "indeterminate vertebrate".[8] In 2004, Ronald Tykoski and Timothy Rowe listed Velocipes as a possible ceratosaur or coelophysoid.[9] Weishampel et al. (2004) also listed Velocipes as a possible ceratosaur.[10]

However, an SVP abstract reviewing putative dinosauriform remains from the Triassic of southern Poland confirmed the original theropod classification of Velocipes by von Huene, which was elaborated in detail in a 2016 paper.[11][12] The authors considered Velocipes to have been a basal theropod or a neotheropod.

Description

The surviving portion of the fibula is 16.4 cm long and after comparing the bone to other related theropods, it is believed that the full fibula was roughly 30-35 cm in length.[12] The medial surface is slightly concave, suggesting that Velocipes may have been a neotheropod,[12] and on the front side of the lateral surface of the bone there is a clear comb about 52 mm long and about 5 mm high.

It is assumed that, based on the estimated size of the fibula, Velocipes may have reached up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) long and weighed around 50 kilograms (110 lb),[12][5] although this can only be speculated as only one specimen of Velocipes is currently known to exist.[2]

Paleoecology

Velocipes would have been contemporaneous with the aetosaur genus Kocurypelta, an indeterminate species of lungfish and the stem-turtle Proterochersis cf. porebensis.[5]

References
  1. Velocipes on the Dinosaur Mailing List
  2. Huene, F. von. (1932). Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte. Monogr. Geol. Pal. 4 (1) pts. 1 and 2, viii + 361 pp.
  3. Gürich G. (1898), "The Paleozoic of the Polish Low Mountains", Verhandlungen der Russischen Kaiserlichen Gesellschaft zu Saint Petersburg 32 1898:1–539).
  4. Gürich, G. (1884). Über einige Saurier des oberschlesischen Muschelkalkes. Zeitschrift der deutschen geologischen Gesellschaft 26: 136-141.
  5. Czepiński, Ł.; Dróżdż, D.; Szczygielski, T.; Tałanda, M.; Pawlak, W.; Lewczuk, A.; Rytel, A.; Sulej, T. (2021). "An Upper Triassic Terrestrial Vertebrate Assemblage from the Forgotten Kocury Locality (Poland) with a New Aetosaur Taxon". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 41: e1898977. doi:10.1080/02724634.2021.1898977. S2CID 233522981.
  6. von Huene F. (1956). Paläontologie und Phylogenie der niederen Tetrapoden. Jena: Gustav Fischer Verlag.
  7. Welles SP (1984). Dilophosaurus wetherilli (Dinosauria: Theropoda) osteology and comparisons. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 185: 85-180.
  8. Rauhut, O. W., and Hungerbühler, A. (2000). "A review of European Triassic theropods." Gaia, 15: 75-88.
  9. Tykoski RS, Rowe TB (2004). Ceratosauria. In: Weishampel DB, Dodson P., Osmólska H. (ed.). The Dinosauria. II edition. Berkeley: California University Press, pp. 47-70.
  10. Weishampel DB, Barrett PM, Coria RA, Le Loeuff J., Xu X., Zhao X., Sahni A., Gomani EMP, Noto CR (2004). Dinosaur distribution. In: Weishampel DB, Dodson P., Osmólska H. (ed.). The Dinosauria. II edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 517–606.
  11. Czepinski et al., (2014). A Re-evaluation of the Purported Dinosaur Finds From The Middle-Late Triassic Of Poland. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34 (Supplement to volume 5): 115A.
  12. Tomasz Skawiński, Maciej Ziegler, Łukasz Czepiński, Marcin Szermański, Mateusz Tałanda, Dawid Surmik & Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, (2016). A re-evaluation of the historical 'dinosaur' remains from the Middle-Upper Triassic of Poland. Historical Biology (advance online publication) DOI:10.1080/08912963.2016.1188385 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2016.1188385
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