sauro-, saur-, -saurus, -saurid, -saur,
-sauria, -saurian +

A “wounding (or tearing) lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America (New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado, Montana, and perhaps Wyoming). Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1877.

This nomenclature (“powerful lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Tyrannosaurus. Named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1905.

This nomenclature (“double-armored lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Euoplocephalus. Named by William Arthur Parks in 1924.

This nomenclature (“uncatchable lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Dryosaurus. Named by Hans Virchow in 1921.

A “bad place (hard-to-place) lizard” from Late Jurassic or Late Cretaceous North America (Wyoming).

Dyslocosaurus is thought to be the last of an unknown line of North American sauropods. The possibility exists that its remains were improperly dated and that rather than being from the Late Cretaceous, it might actually be from the Late Jurassic.

Named by John Stanton McIntosh (1923-), Walter P. Coombs, Jr., and Dale Alan Russell in 1992.

A “two-column (double-beamed [vertebra]) lizard” from Late Jurassic. Recent research suggests that this type of vertebra may be part of the huge Supersaurus skeleton found near the same site at Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in Colorado, and so belongs to a diplodocid, not a brachiosaurid.

This fossil may really be a Supersaurus. Named by U. S. paleontologist James A. Jensen in 1985.

An “Ebrach lizard” from Late Triassic Ebrach, Germany. It was named for the town in the Franconia region of central Germany, near where the fossil was found.

A “ground-earth lizard” that lived during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Its fossils have been found in Europe and North America.

“Edmonton lizard” from Late Cretaceous Edmonton Formation of Alberta (Canada), Montana, and New Jersey. This animal was formerly known as Anatosaurus, Thespesius, and Trachodon. Named by Canadian fossil hunter Lawrence M. Lambe in 1917.

A “buffalo (bison) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Montana. The name is based on Black Feet Indian eini, “buffalo” to honor the Black Feet tribe, on whose land in Montana the fossils were found, referring also to the idea that ceratopsians were the “buffalo” of the Cretaceous, living in large, socially complex herds. Named by paleontologist Scott Matthew Sampson in 1995.

A “light (lightweight) lizard” from Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Algeria, Tanzania, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, south-central Niger, and North America. The Greek elaphros, “nimble, light-weight, fleet” named for its light, slender body. Named by Verner Janensch in 1920.

A “plate (bone) lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America. It was a plesiosaur, not a dinosaur. Named by Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) in 1868.

A “foot lizard” from Late Cretaceous southern Mongolia. It was found in 1970 in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. The name is based on Mongolian olmyi, “sole of the foot, hindfoot”. Named by Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmólska (Osmolska) in 1981.

A “marsh lizard” based on the supposed “marshy“ lifestyle of sauropods and Othniel Charles Marsh’s name, the nomenclator. Named by U. S. paleontologists Oscar A. Peterson and Charles Whitney Gilmore in 1902.

Named for Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität from Early Jurassic Griefswald, northern Germany. Named by paleontologist Hartmut Haubold in 1990.