page_title: Timeline of ceratosaur research
section_title: 1950s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of ceratosaur research / 20th century / 1950s
caption_attribution_description: MNHN.MAJ 1[1], a right dentary of a subadult Majungasaurus crenatissimus (it is the neotype), Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.
context_page_description: This timeline of ceratosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ceratosaurs, a group of relatively primitive, often horned, predatory theropod dinosaurs that became the apex predators of the southern hemisphere during the Late Cretaceous. The nature and taxonomic composition of the Ceratosauria has been controversial since the group was first distinguished in the late 19th century. In 1884 Othniel Charles Marsh described the new genus and species Ceratosaurus nasicornis from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States. He felt that it belonged in a new family that he called the Ceratosauridae. He created the new taxon Ceratosauria to include both the Ceratosauridae and the ostrich-like ornithomimids. The idea of the Ceratosauria was soon contested, however. Later that same decade both Lydekker and Marsh's hated rival Edward Drinker Cope argued that the taxon was invalid.
  The idea of the Ceratosauria would regain some support more than thirty years later when Gilmore argued in its favor in 1920.
context_section_description: 1955
  René Lavocat erected the new genus Majungasaurus to house the species "Megalosaurus" crenatissimus, and designated a neotype specimen.
  Albert-Félix de Lapparent and Lavocat rejected the validity of the Ceratosauria and Ceratosauridae.
  1956
  Romer rejected the validity of the Ceratosauria and Ceratosauridae.
  Von Huene  recognized the Ceratosauria and/or Ceratosauridae as valid.
caption: Neotype specimen of M. crenatissimus (MNHN.MAJ 1), the right dentary of a subadult individual, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris.
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