Termatosaurus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Termatosaurus ("end lizard", because it came from the end of the Upper Triassic) was a genus of phytosaur, an extinct crocodile-like aquatic animal, although twice it has been confused with dinosaurs (once accidentally). Its remains come from the Upper Triassic of Europe. Two species are known of this animal: the type species, Termatosaurus albertii, named by T. Plieninger in 1844; and T. crocodilinus, by Quenstedt, 1852. It is very obscure and apparently considered to be dubious.

It had been at least once considered to be a dinosaur, which got it onto Internet dinosaur genera lists. At some point, a webmaster accidentally added species from the adjoining Tetragonosaurus, a genus now known to be based on juvenile duckbill remains. The species were T. praeceps (=Lambeosaurus lambei), and T. cranibrevis and T. erectofrons (=Corythosaurus casuarius). This is clearly an error, and should not be followed in the future.

[edit] References

Right:

• true identity of Termatosaurus

Wrong: (Both of these pages have the same source, and are accidental transpositions of species of Tetragonosaurus onto this genus)

• http://home.online.no/~padron/t.htm
• http://the_dinosauria.tripod.com/tv.html