Coelurus [SEP] parent taxon
more closely related to compsognathids than to other coelurosaurs. Oliver Rauhut (2003) proposed that Coeluridae was composed of "Coelurus" plus the compsognathids, but he and others have not since found the compsognathids to group with "Coelurus". However, a work published by Phil Senter in 2007 following the description of "Tanycolagreus" found it and "Coelurus" to be closely related at the base of Tyrannosauroidea. Senter proposed that "Coelurus" and "Tanycolagreus" were the only coelurids and were actually tyrannosauroids, but the phylogenetic
as excluding the taxon from ornithopods, and tooth morphology as excluding it from sauropods. Within theropods, it was found to be sufficiently different from one main groups of theropods including "Coelurus", "Calamosaurus", and "Compsognathus", and the megalosaurids including "Megalosaurus". Thus, Lydekker placed it in Thecodontosauridae, a group of theropods (now placed in sauropodomorpha) including "Thecodontosaurus". Lydekker noted that "Sarcolestes" was similar in dental morphology to "Priodontognathus", and that together they might be shown