Deltadromeus
| Deltadromeus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian), | |
|---|---|
| Mounted skeleton cast with reconstructed skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | †Noasauridae (?) |
| Genus: | †Deltadromeus Sereno et al., 1996 |
| Species: | †D. agilis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Deltadromeus agilis Sereno et al., 1996 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Deltadromeus (meaning "delta runner") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Aoufous Formation of Morocco.
It had long, unusually slender hind limbs for its size, suggesting that it was a swift runner. The skull is not known. One fossil specimen of a single species (D. agilis, or "agile delta runner") has been described, found in the Kem Kem Beds, which date to the mid-Cretaceous Period (mid-Cenomanian age), about 95 million years ago. It may be a junior synonym of the contemporary Bahariasaurus. The classification of Deltadromeus has been in flux since its original description. In 2016, a South American theropod known as Gualicho shinyae was found to possess many similarities with Deltadromeus. Depending on the phylogenetic position of Gualicho, Deltadromeus may have been a neovenatorid carnosaur, a tyrannosauroid, or a basal coelurosaur if its close relation to Gualicho is legitimate. Other studies have considered it a ceratosaurian, more specifically a member of the family Noasauridae.