
Dysalotosaurus
Sign in to saveDysalotosaurus ("uncatchable lizard") is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a dryosaurid iguanodontian, and its fossils have been found in late Kimmeridgian-age rocks (Late Jurassic) of the Tendaguru Formation of Lindi Region in Tanzania. The type and only species of the genus is D. lettowvorbecki. This species was named by Hans Virchow in 1919 in honor of the Imperial German Army Officer, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. For much of the 20th century the species was referred to the related and approximately contemporary genus Dryosaurus, but newer studies reject this synonymy.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- monotypic taxon
- Parent taxon
- Dryosauridae
- Image
- D. lettowvorbecki.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- taxon name
- Dysalotosaurus
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Dysalotosaurus
- start time
- 152000000-
- end time
- 151000000-
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Description
- Ontogeny
- Palaeobiology
- Palaeopathology
- Palaeoecology
- References
Dysalotosaurus ("uncatchable lizard") is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a dryosaurid iguanodontian, and its fossils have been found in late Kimmeridgian-age rocks (Late Jurassic) of the Tendaguru Formation of Lindi Region in Tanzania. The type and only species of the genus is D. lettowvorbecki. This species was named by Hans Virchow in 1919 in honor of the Imperial German Army Officer, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. For much of the 20th century the species was referred to the related and approximately contemporary genus Dryosaurus, but newer studies reject this synonymy.
== Discovery and naming == Thousands of Dysalotosaurus bones and bone fragments have been recovered from the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania, Africa since 1909; the specimens described by Hans Virchow (1919) were discovered between 1909 and 1913. It has been suggested that all of these specimens were part of a herd that was killed in a mass death event. The genus was named by Hans Virchow in 1919, as opposed to Josef Felix Pompeckj (1920), who is often incorrectly cited as naming the genus.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Dysalotosaurus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.