Alectrosaurus

Name: Alectrosaurus (Unmarried lizard).
Phonetic: Ah-lec-tro-sore-us.
Named By: Charles Gilmore - 1933.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Theropoda, Tyrannosauroidea.
Species: A. olseni (type).
Type: Carnivore.
Size: Approximately 5 meters long.
Known locations: Mongolia - Iren Dabasu Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Initially only a hind limb, skull and shoulder remains were later attributed to it on the grounds that further hind limb material matched the holotype. Further post cranial remains from China and Uzbekistan have been reported.

       Because of the scant material available, Alectrosaurus is not very well known. The only thing that can be said about it with any confidence is that it was a tyrannosauroid, the superfamily that includes the famous Tyrannosaurus rex. Further elaboration on this is not currently possible and the exact position of Alectrosaurus within the tyrannosauroidea remains unknown with certainty.

Further reading
- On the dinosaurian fauna of the Iren Dabasu Formation. - Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 68(2-3):23-78. - C. W. Gilmore - 1933.
- [On the first finding of Alectrosaurus (Tyrannosauridae, Theropoda) in the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia.] - Problemy Geologii Mongolii 3:104-113. - A. Perle - 1977.
- A redescription and revised diagnosis of the syntypes of the Mongolian tyrannosaur Alectrosaurus olseni. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 9(1):41-55. - B. J. Mader & R. L. Bradley - 1989.

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