2003 Seattle Annual Meeting (November 2–5, 2003)

Paper No. 13
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM

AN EARLY CRETACEOUS THEROPOD FROM SOUTHWESTERN ARKANSAS


HUNT, ReBecca K., Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech Univ, Lubbock, TX 79409-1053 and CHURE, Dan, Dinosaur National Monument, PO Box 92, Jensen, UT 84035, dinochick_rkh@hotmail.com

The remains of the right pes of a theropod were collected in the Early Cretaceous Trinity Group in Sevier County, southwest Arkansas in 1972. These fossils are the first and only dinosaur remains recovered from the state. However, these remains have not yet been adequately described. The fossils are characterized by differentiated pedal unguals and a lateraly compressed third metatarsal. The specimen provides further knowledge of a poorly understood radiation of Early Cretaceous primitive coelurosaurians east of the Western Interior Seaway.