page_title: Elaphrosaurus
section_title: Paleobiology
hierarchical_section_title: Elaphrosaurus / Paleobiology
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Exponáty přírodopisného muzea (Museum für Naturkunde) v Berlíněnápověda English: Elaphrosaurus skeleton, Museum für Naturkunde in Berlinhelp
context_page_description: Elaphrosaurus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 154 to 150 million years ago during the later part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. Elaphrosaurus was a medium-sized but lightly built member of the group that could grow up to 6.2 m long. Morphologically, this dinosaur is significant in two ways. Firstly, it has a relatively long body but is very shallow-chested for a theropod of its size. Secondly, it has very short hindlimbs in comparison with its body. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that this genus is likely a ceratosaur. Earlier suggestions that it is a late surviving coelophysoid have been examined but generally dismissed. Elaphrosaurus is currently believed to be a very close relative of Limusaurus, an unusual beaked ceratosaurian which may have been either herbivorous or omnivorous.
context_section_description: Paul (1988) noted that Elaphrosaurus bambergi was too small to prey on the sauropods and stegosaurs present in its paleoenvironment, and instead, it likely hunted the small and swift ornithopod herbivores. However, newer studies support the idea that Elaphrosaurus was a herbivore or omnivore, owing to its close relation with Limusaurus and a neck which is much less flexible than those characteristic of carnivorous theropods.
caption: Holotype mount from the front
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