Skip to content
Piatnitzkysaurus
EntityQ134195· pop 26· linked from 353 articles

Piatnitzkysaurus

Sign in to save

Piatnitzkysaurus ( ; meaning "Piatnitzky's lizard") is a genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 179 to 177 million years ago during the lower part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Argentina. Piatnitzkysaurus was a moderately large, lightly built, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore that could grow over long.

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

6 sections
Contents
  • Discovery and naming
  • Description
  • Braincase
  • Classification
  • References
  • External links

Piatnitzkysaurus ( ; meaning "Piatnitzky's lizard") is a genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 179 to 177 million years ago during the lower part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Argentina. Piatnitzkysaurus was a moderately large, lightly built, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore that could grow over long.

== Discovery and naming == The holotype specimen of Piatnitzkysaurus, PVL 4073, was collected during expeditions in 1977, 1982, and 1983 at the Cañadón Asfalto Formation in sediments that were deposited during the Middle-Late Toarcian stage of the Jurassic period, approximately 179 to 177 million years ago. The specimen was very complete and is one of the best known from a megalosaur, including a partial skull and partial anterior postcranial skeleton of a subadult individual preserved in semi-articulation. Later in 1986, several bones of an adult individual were referred to the taxon and are the only described material besides the type.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Piatnitzkysaurus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (10)