Aerosaurus

Aerosaurus (meaning "copper lizard") is an extinct genus within Varanopidae, a family of non-mammalian synapsids. It lived between 252-299 million years ago during the Early Permian in North America. The name comes from Latin aes (aeris) (combining stem: aer-) “copper” and Greek sauros “lizard,” for El Cobre Canyon (from Spanish cobre “copper”) in northern New Mexico, where the type fossil was found and the site of former copper mines. Aerosaurus was a small to medium-bodied carnivorous synapsid characterized by its recurved teeth, triangular lateral temporal fenestra, and extended teeth row. Two species are recognized: A. greenleeorum (1937) and A. wellesi (1981).

==History and discovery== left|thumb|A block full of Aerosaurus wellesi Aerosaurus was a taxon named by American paleontologist and biologist Alfred Romer in 1937. There have only been two species named: A. greenleeorum (1937) and A. wellesi (1981), both discovered in New Mexico. A. greenleeorum Romer, 1937, is based on bone fragments assumed from a single individual collected by Romer in El Cobre Canyon near the Abo/Cutler Formation of the Arroyo del Agua. Cross-examination of the fragmentary holotype of A. greenleeorum Romer with the Camp Quarry skeleton with its expanded tooth-bearing parasphenoidal plate matches it to Aerosaurus taxa.