Euskelosaurus

Euskelosaurus Temporal range: Late Triassic
E. africanus ishia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Family:	Plateosauridae
Genus:	Euskelosaurus
Species:	E. browni
Binomial name
Euskelosaurus browni Huxley, 1866

Euskelosaurus ("good leg lizard") was a semi-bipedal dinosaur from the Late Triassic. It was a plateosaurid that lived in the Late Triassic Period, in present-day South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. It was first described by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1866 as Euskelesaurus brownii based on holotype BMNH R1625,^[1] limb and spinal bones found by Alfred Brown in 1863.^[2] The name was in 1902 emended by Friedrich von Huene into Euskelosaurus.

Description

Euskelosaurus has been estimated to have been about ten metres in length, which is somewhat large for a plateosaurid.^[2] Its limbs were large and sauropod-like. Another distinguishing feature of the limbs of Euskelosaurus is that the shaft of its thigh bone is twisted. Paleontologist Jacques van Heerden has suggested that this configuration effectively rendered Euskelosaurus bow-legged.^[3] If this is correct it is highly unusual for a dinosaur, as dinosaur legs are typically oriented directly under the body like in mammals.^[2]

References