Claosaurus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Claosaurus agilis O. Marsh, 1890 |
Claosaurus, (CLAY-oh-sawr-us) meaning 'broken lizard', referring to the odd position of the fossils when discovered (Greek klao meaning 'broken' and sauros meaning 'lizard') was a primitive hadrosaurid (duck-billed dinosaur) living during the Late Cretaceous Period (Santonian).
Evidence of its existence was first found near the Smoky Hill River in Kansas, USA in the form of partial skull fragments and as an articulated postcranial skeleton. Originally named Hadrosaurus agilis (Marsh, (1872), it was placed in a new genus and renamed Claosaurus agilis in 1890 when major differences between this specimen and Hadrosaurus came to light.
Claosaurus had a slender body and slim feet, with long legs, small arms, and a long, stiff tail. It probably grew to a length of about 12 to 15 feet (3.5 meters) and weighed roughly 470 kg.
It appears to have walked on its hind legs, dropping to all fours only to graze. Like other hadrosaurs, it was an herbivore.
Original, as described by Marsh, 1872:
1. Notice of a new species of Hadrosaurus; by O. C. MARSH. Among the Reptilian remains obtained by the Yale College party during the past summer (1871) was the greater part of a skeleton of a small Hadrosaurus, discovered by the writer in the blue Cretaceous shale near the Smoky Hill River, in Western Kansas. This species was somewhat smaller than H. minor Marsh, from New Jersey, and hardly more than one-third the bulk of H. Foulkei of Leidy. It was of more slender proportions, with the tail much elongated. The cervical vertebra are proportionally shorter than in H. Foulkei, and the caudals appear more compressed, Some of the distal caudals have a longitudinal ridge on the lateral surface. The sacrum, which is composed of six confluent vertebræ is 414 mm. in length. The first caudal vertebra is 62 mm. in length. The feet are nearly entire, and are proportionally more slender than the known remains of the other species would indicate. The third metatarsal is 235 mm. in length, and 77 mm. in transverse diameter at its distal end. This species, which may be called Hadrosaurus agilis, will be fully described in this Journal at an early day.
Yale College, New Haven, March 19th, 1872.
