Dryptosaurus

tearing lizard

• dryptō (δρύπτω) · Greek · to tear, to rend
• sauros (σαῦρος) · Greek · lizard

The name comes from Greek words meaning "to tear" and "lizard", i.e. "tearing lizard". Edward Drinker Cope chose it because of the animal's large, strongly curved claws, which he thought were used for tearing prey. The type species is Dryptosaurus aquilunguis ("eagle claw"), a tyrannosauroid theropod from eastern North America.

Named by

Marsh

Year named

1877

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Maastrichtian

Found in

Navesink Formation, New Jersey, USA

The genus was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 (as a replacement name for Cope's Laelaps, which was preoccupied), not by Cope himself. The etymology above should be read accordingly: Marsh coined Dryptosaurus, and the 'tearing' idea refers to the claws of the animal originally described by Cope as Laelaps aquilunguis. It is a basal tyrannosauroid and one of the first reasonably well-known dinosaurian theropods from North America.