Dino of the Week: Poekilopleuron

Type Species: Poekilopleuron bucklandii

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Theropoda – Carnosauria - Megalosauroidea -  Megalosauria - Megalosauridae  

Time Period: Middle Jurassic

Location: Europe (France) 

Diet: Carnivore 

Poekilopleuron was a theropod hunter who roamed the beaches, mangrove swamps, and wooded floodplains of prehistoric France. It was thirty feet long with a low skull that lacked ornamentation. It had short, muscle-chiseled arms that would’ve been strong enough to grapple with thrashing prey. While most early theropods were streamlined in profile, Poekilopleuron was rather bulky like its contemporary Megalosaurus. Though Poekilopleuron would’ve been slow on its feet, it could use its brute and brawn to attack larger prey such as the primitive stegosaur Lexovisaurus and the sauropod Cetiosaurus. Its name means ‘varied ribs’ because one specimen contained a complete ribcage (quite a rarity!) that was comprised of three different types of bone. The length of its middle neck spines suggest to some scientists that it was ancestral in type to the later spinosaurids like Spinosaurus and Baryonyx.