biology

Teinurosaurus

Teinurosaurus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Teinurosaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Teinurosaurus is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic in what is now France. The type species is Teinurosaurus sauvagei.

Key takeaways

Teinurosaurus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Teinurosaurus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Teinurosaurus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Teinurosaurus is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic in what is now France. The type species is Teinurosaurus sauvagei. It has been estimated to be 11.4 m (37 ft) in length and 3.6 t (4.0 short tons) in weight.

Discovery and taxonomy The holotype was discovered in 1897. Also in 1897, French paleontologist Henri-Émile Sauvage referred a tail vertebra from the Tithonian Mont-Lambert Formation of France, catalogued in the collection of the Musée Géologique du Boulonnais at Boulogne-sur-Mer in France, to Iguanodon prestwichii (now Cumnoria prestwichii), a herbivorous iguanodont. In 1928 Baron Franz Nopcsa recognised the fossil to be the vertebra of a theropod not an ornithopod. He decided to name it as the genus Teinurosaurus. However, by a mistake of the printer, the footnote in which the new name was mentioned was not placed at the end of the section referring to the fossil but adjacent to a citation of Saurornithoides Osborn 1924, giving the false impression Nopcsa intended to rename the latter genus. After having discovered the typographical error, Nopcsa in 1929 added an addendum to the article, correcting the mistake. In 1932 German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene again named the fossil, giving it the species name Caudocoelus sauvagei. "Caudocoelus" means "hollow tail" in Latin. The specific epithet honours Sauvage. The name Teinurosaurus was largely forgotten or not even understood to be a synonym of Caudocoelus, until in 1969 John Ostrom revealed its priority. Ostrom also pointed out that Nopcsa had not provided a specific name. In 1978 George Olshevsky was the first to combine the two names, making Teinurosaurus sauvagei (von Huene 1932) Olshevsky 1978 vide Nopcsa 1928 emend. 1929 a valid species name. The holotype (originally catalogued MGB 500 now BHN2R 240) is a distal caudal vertebra, 152 millimetres long. A number of authors (e.g. Lapparent 1967; Galton 1982) believed that the holotype was destroyed in World War II, but the specimen is still extant, as noted by Buffetaut et al. (1991). Teinurosaurus was considered by von Huene to be a member Coeluridae, but is now generally seen as a nomen dubium at Averostra incertae sedis.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Teinurosaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Teinurosaurus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Teinurosaurus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Teinurosaurus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Teinurosaurus

In research: Teinurosaurus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Teinurosaurus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Teinurosaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of France, Fossil taxa described in 1928, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Teinurosaurus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Teinurosaurus” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Teinurosaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Teinurosaurus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Teinurosaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Teinurosaurus in simple terms?

Teinurosaurus is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic in what is now France. The type species is Teinurosaurus sauvagei.

Why does Teinurosaurus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Teinurosaurus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Teinurosaurus.