>>9417780Used to be called Laelaps actually and had a good amount of popularity that way but the name was changed to Drytosaurus because the name was already in use for a species of mite. Part of the Cope and Marsh controversy caused its renaming, Cope over looked the fact that it was already in use and Marsh renamed it Dryptosaurus. Charles R Knight did the famous "Leaping Laelaps" painting. Cope continued to use the name Laelaps. It was the first theropod discovered in North America and the first since the discovery of Megalasaurus in Europe. it became a famous and Dryptosaurus is more fitting too noting its long deadly claws earning it the name tearing lizard. It has longer arms than most large Tyrannosaurs and could use them with deadly effect. It doesn't seem to have had a ceratopsian counterpart and it didn't have the thick teeth like most tyrannosaurs do, it likely hunted hadrosaurs. It is only one of 2 theropods discovered in Eastern North America the 2nd being Appalachiosaurus from Alabama, a close relative. (too bad we didn't get one in this series.) It is also a close relative of Yutyrannus.
