Claosaurus
Sign in to saveClaosaurus ( ; Greek κλάω, klao meaning 'broken' and , sauros meaning 'lizard'; "broken lizard", referring to the odd position of the fossils when discovered) is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period (Santonian-Campanian) of what is now North America. The type and only known valid species is Claosaurus agilis. Traditionally classified as an early member of the family Hadrosauridae, a 2008 analysis found Claosaurus to be outside of the clade containing Hadrosaurus and other hadrosaurids, making it the closest non-hadrosaurid relative of true hadrosaurids
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Claosaurus ( ; Greek κλάω, klao meaning 'broken' and , sauros meaning 'lizard'; "broken lizard", referring to the odd position of the fossils when discovered) is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period (Santonian-Campanian) of what is now North America. The type and only known valid species is Claosaurus agilis. Traditionally classified as an early member of the family Hadrosauridae, a 2008 analysis found Claosaurus to be outside of the clade containing Hadrosaurus and other hadrosaurids, making it the closest non-hadrosaurid relative of true hadrosaurids within the clade Hadrosauromorpha.
==Description== Because of the insufficient fossil remains ("minority of skull and partial skeleton"), the size of an adult Claosaurus remains uncertain. However, Thomas Holtz gave a length estimate of and a mass estimate as that of a lion. Like other hadrosaurs, it was an herbivore.