Becklespinax

Beckles' spine

• Beckles · English (surname) · Samuel Husbands Beckles, geologist who found the fossils
• spinax · Latinised Greek/Latin · spine

The name honours Samuel Husbands Beckles, the 19th-century English geologist who first collected and studied the fossil vertebrae in the Hastings area. "Spinax" refers to the tall neural spines on the vertebrae, which may have supported a sail or hump. The genus was named in 1991 by Gregory Paul, and was originally described as a species of Altispinax.

Named by

Paul

Year named

1988

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Valanginian

Found in

Hastings Group (Hastings Beds), Cuckfield/Battle area, East Sussex, England, UK

A large theropod (an allosauroid, probably a carcharodontosaurian or related) known from a partial set of vertebrae and ribs. It was originally named Megalosaurus altispinax by Owen/Lydekker and later Altispinax by von Huene; Paul separated it as Becklespinax altispinax. Some details of dating, authorship year and etymology wording should be checked against primary sources.