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Dysalotosaurus
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Dysalotosaurus

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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.

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 sections
Contents
  • 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.

Gallery (2)