{{Short description|Extinct family of dinosaurs}} {{Automatic taxobox | name = Coelurids | fossil_range = Late Jurassic, {{Fossil range|153|150}} | image = Coelurus.jpg | image_caption = Reconstructed skeleton of ''Coelurus'' | taxon = Coeluridae | authority = Marsh, 1881 | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = * ''Aorun''? * ''Coelurus'' <small>(type)</small> * ''Fukuivenator''? * ''Migmanychion''? * ''Ornitholestes''? * ''Phuwiangvenator''? * ''Shishugounykus''? * ''Tanycolagreus''? * ''Tugulusaurus''? * ''Vayuraptor''? }}
'''Coeluridae''' is a historically unnatural group of generally small, carnivorous dinosaurs from the late Jurassic Period. For many years, any small Jurassic or Cretaceous theropod that did not belong to one of the more specialized families recognized at the time was classified with the coelurids, creating a confusing array of 'coelurid' theropods that were not closely related. Although they have been traditionally included in this family, there is no evidence that any of these primitive coelurosaurs form a natural group with ''Coelurus'', the namesake of Coeluridae, to the exclusion of other traditional coelurosaur groups.
==Classification== Before the use of phylogenetic analyses, Coeluridae and Coelurosauria were taxonomic wastebaskets used for small theropods that did not belong to other groups; thus, they accumulated many dubious genera.<ref name=GSP88>{{cite book |last=Paul |first=G.S. |year=1988 |title=Predatory Dinosaurs of the World |place=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |pages=[https://archive.org/details/predatorydinosau00paul/page/248 248–250] |isbn=0-671-61946-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/predatorydinosau00paul/page/248 }}</ref><ref name=DBN90>{{cite book |last=Norman |first=David B. |author-link=David B. Norman |year=1990 |chapter=Problematic theropoda: "coelurosaurs" |editor=Weishampel, David B. |editor2=Dodson, Peter |editor3=Osmólska, Halszka |title=The Dinosauria |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |pages=280–305 |isbn=0-520-06727-4}}</ref> As late as the 1980s, popular books recognized over a dozen "coelurids", including such disparate forms as the noasaurid ''Laevisuchus'' and the oviraptorosaurian ''Microvenator'', and considered them descendants of the coelophysids.<ref name=DL83>{{cite book |last=Lambert |first=David |author2=the Diagram Group |title=A Field Guide to Dinosaurs |year=1983 |publisher=Avon Books |location=New York |isbn=0-380-83519-3 |chapter=Coelurids |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetodino00lamb/page/44 44–47] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetodino00lamb/page/44 }}</ref> A wastebasket Coeluridae lingered into the early 1990s in some sources<ref name=LG93>{{cite book|title=The Dinosaur Society Dinosaur Encyclopedia|year=1993|author1=Lessem, Don|author2=Glut, Donald F.|publisher=Random House, Inc.|isbn=0-679-41770-2|url=https://archive.org/details/dinosaursocietys00less}}</ref> (and appears in at least one 2006 source)<ref>{{cite book|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World|year=2006|author=Palmer, Douglas|publisher=Chartwell Books, Inc|location=New Jersey|chapter=Ruling Reptiles: Dinosaurs and Their Kin|pages=232–313|isbn=0-7858-2086-8}}</ref> but since then it has only been recognized in a much reduced form.<ref name=OR03/><ref name=PS07/>
In 2003, O.W.M. Rauhut, using a cladistic analysis, found Coeluridae to include ''Coelurus'' (Late Jurassic, North America), ''Compsognathus'' (Late Jurassic, Europe), ''Sinosauropteryx'' (Early Cretaceous, Asia) and an unnamed ''Compsognathus''-like form (Early Cretaceous, South America; this dinosaur has since been placed in the new genus ''Mirischia''). Rauhut considered coelurids to be a monophyletic group of basal coelurosaurs, characterized by evolutionary reversals in some aspects of the vertebrae to the more primitive theropod condition.<ref name=OR03>{{cite journal |last=Rauhut |first=Oliver W.M. |year=2003 |title=The interrelationships and evolution of basal theropod dinosaurs |journal=Special Papers in Palaeontology |volume=69 |pages=1–213}}</ref> However, he and other authors have not since found this result.<ref name=PS07>{{cite journal |last=Senter |first=Phil |year=2007 |title=A new look at the phylogeny of Coelurosauria (Dinosauria, Theropoda) |journal=Journal of Systematic Palaeontology |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=429–463 |doi=10.1017/S1477201907002143|s2cid=83726237 }}</ref><ref name=HMC04>{{cite book|last=Holtz |first=Thomas R. Jr. |author2=Molnar, Ralph E. |author3= Currie, Philip J. |year=2004 |editor=Weishampel, David B. |editor2=Dodson, Peter |editor3=Osmólska, Halszka |title=The Dinosauria |url=https://archive.org/details/dinosauriandedit00weis |url-access=limited |edition=2nd |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-24209-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dinosauriandedit00weis/page/n89 71]–110 }}</ref><ref name=RX05>{{cite journal |last=Rauhut |first=Oliver W.M. |author2=Xu, Xing |year=2005 |title=The small theropod dinosaurs ''Tugulusaurus'' and ''Phaedrolosaurus'' from the Early Cretaceous of Xinjiang, China |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=107–118 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0107:TSTDTA]2.0.CO;2}}</ref> Phil Senter proposed in 2007 that ''Coelurus'' and ''Tanycolagreus'' were the only coelurids, and were actually tyrannosauroids.<ref name=PS07/>
Coeluridae received a formal phylogenetic definition in 2015, when it was defined as all species more closely related to ''Coelurus fragilis'' than to ''Proceratosaurus bradleyi'', ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', ''Allosaurus fragilis'', ''Compsognathus longipes'', ''Ornithomimus edmontonicus'', or ''Deinonychus antirrhopus'' by Hendrickx, Hartman and Mateus.<ref name=theropodphylogeny2015>{{cite journal |last1=Hendrickx |first1=C. |last2=Hartman |first2=S. A. |last3=Mateus |first3=O. |title=An Overview Of Non-Avian Theropod Discoveries And Classification |journal=PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology |date=2015 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=1–73 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281112957}}</ref> It remains unclear whether or not this group contains any species other than ''Coelurus'' itself, and while ''Tanycolagreus'' is often included, support for this relationship has been weak in most of the studies that recovered it.<ref name=tyrannosauroid_phylogeny_2016>Brusatte, S. L., & Carr, T. D. (2016). [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4735739/ The phylogeny and evolutionary history of tyrannosauroid dinosaurs.] ''Scientific Reports'', 6.</ref>
In 2024, Cau recovered Coeluridae as the basalmost family of maniraptoromorphs, including few of its traditional members; in addition to ''Coelurus'', it contains ''Shishugounykus'' (traditionally a basal alvarezsaur), ''Phuwiangvenator'' and ''Vayuraptor'' (sometimes considered to be early megaraptorans), ''Fukuivenator'' (sometimes considered to be a basal therizinosaur), and ''Migmanychion''. The results of his phylogenetic analysis are displayed in the cladogram below:<ref name=Cau2024>{{cite journal |last1=Cau |first1=Andrea |title=A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution |journal=Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana |date=2024 |volume=63 |issue=1 |page=1-19 |doi=10.4435/BSPI.2024.08 |doi-broken-date=10 July 2025 |url=https://www.paleoitalia.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/01_Cau_2024_BSPI_631.pdf }}</ref>
{{clade |label1=Maniraptoromorpha |1={{clade |label1='''Coeluridae''' |1={{clade |1=''Vayuraptor'' |2=''Shishugounykus'' |3=''Phuwiangvenator'' |4=''Coelurus'' |5={{clade |1=''Migmanychion'' |2=''Fukuivenator'' }} }} |3={{clade |1=''Ornitholestes'' |2=Maniraptoriformes }} }} }}
==References== {{Portal|Dinosaurs}} {{Reflist}}
{{Theropoda|C.}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q134155}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Coelurosauria Category:Dinosaur families