Halticosaurus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iHalticosaurus
Fossil range: Late Triassic
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Superfamily: Coelophysoidea
Family: Coelophysidae
Genus: Halticosaurus
Binomial name
Halticosaurus longotarsus

Halticosaurus (meaning "nimble lizard") was a dinosaur from the Late Triassic period. It was a coelophysoid found in what is present-day Germany. Some researchers consider Halticosaurus the same genus as Liliensternus, but Welles (1984) found differences in the femoral head and the anterior trochantor.

The type species, Halticosaurus longotarsus, was based on partial jawbones and teeth, partial vertebrae, a few arm and leg bones, and fragments of an illium, and was found mixed in with the remains of a prosauropod dinosaur, Sellosaurus gracilis. A second species assigned to this genus, "Halticosaurus orbitoangulatus", turned out to be a crocodylomorph (Rauhut and Hungerbuhler, 2000).

[edit] References