Previously undocumented postcranial material from the Chipping Norton Limestone Formation (Middle Jurassic: Lower Bathonian) of Cross Hands Quarry, near Little Compton, Warwickshire represents a new large−bodied theropod  dinosaur, distinct from the contemporaneous Megalosaurus bucklandii. Cruxicheiros newmanorum gen. et sp. nov. is diagnosed by a single autapomorphy, the presence of a proximomedially inclined ridge within the groove that marks the lateral extent of the posterior flange of the femoral caput (trochanteric fossa). C. newmanorum shows three tetanuran features: widely separated cervical zygapophyses, a swollen ridge on the lateral surface of the iliac blade and an anterior spur of the caudal neural spines. However, due to fragmentary preservation its affinities within Tetanurae remain uncertain: phylogenetic analysis places it as the most basal tetanuran, the most basal megalosauroid (= spinosauroid) or the most basal neotetanuran.

Key words: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Tetanurae, Megalosaurus, Cruxicheiros, Bathonian, Chipping Norton Limestone Formation, England.

Roger B. J. Benson [rbb27@cam.ac.uk], Department of Earth Science, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK, CB2 3EQ; Jonathan D. Radley [jonradley@warwickshire.gov.uk], Warwickshire Museum, Market Place, Warwick, UK CV34 4SA; School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK B15 2TT.