Elaphrosaurus

Elaphrosaurus ( ) is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late 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 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.

== Discovery == left|thumb|Skeletal restoration of elements recovered from 1920 to 1925 The type specimen of Elaphrosaurus bambergi HMN Gr.S. 38–44 was recovered in the Middle Dinosaur Member of the Tendaguru Formation of Lindi Region in Tanzania. The specimen was collected by Werner Janensch, I. Salim, H. Reck, and Parkinson in 1910 in gray, green, red, sandy marl that was deposited during the Kimmeridgian stage of the Jurassic period, approximately 157 to 152 million years ago. This specimen is housed in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Berlin, Germany.