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

Small, lightly built prosauropods, longer than a man yet less than half his weight. Their fossils have been found in eastern North America, western Europe, southern Africa, and northeastern Australia. The family may have thrived from Middle Triassic to Middle Jurassic times.

Meaning “near” or “close lizard” from Early Jurassic northeast USA and South Africa. It was discovered in Connecticut and Massachusetts. This creature was formerly known as Gyposaurus, Megalosaurid, and Yaleosaurus. Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1885.

Meaning (“Andes lizard”) from Early or Middle Cretaceous Patagonia (Neuquen Province) region of Argentina. Named by Argentinian paleontologists Jorge O. Calvo and José Bonaparte in 1991.

Armored dinosaurs, “fused (or stiff) lizards”, were low, squat, heavy-bodied beasts, many with short, massive limbs and barrel-shaped bodies. Named by paleontologist Barnum Brown (1873-1963) in 1908.

Mean “fused lizard” from Late Cretaceous Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA. Named by paleontologist Barnum Brown (1873-1963) in 1908.

This nomenclature, meaning “toothless lizard” is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Euoplocephalus aucutosquameus. Named by Charles Hazelus Sternberg (1850-1943) in 1929.

Means “not armored (or no weapon) lizard” from Early Cretaceous eastern England. This creature was formerly known as Eucerosaurus and Syngonosaurus. Named by British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley (1839-1909) in 1878.

Means “not northern ( but southern) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, India, and Kazakhstan. Named by German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1929.

A “deceptive lizard” was once called Brontosaurus (“thunder lizard”) from the way it supposedly made the ground shake as it walked; from Late Jurassic Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming (USA).

Its name is based on Greek apatan, apatao, “illusory, deception”; a reference to the Y-shaped chevrons (or hemal arches) on the underside of the tail, that Marsh thought were deceptively like those found in some mosasaurs (Tylosaurus, Platcarpus, etc.).

Apatosaurus does not mean “headless lizard” as some seemed to have thought. Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1877.

Means “sea-foam lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America. Found in the coastal Moreno Formation, in Fresno County, California. Its name is supposed to indicate a marine reptile. Named by U. S. paleontologist Samuel Paul Welles in 1943.

“Aragon lizard” from Early Cretaceous Aragon Province, Spain. Named by Spanish paleontologists Sanz Garcia, Angela D. Buscalioni, María Lourdes Casanovas-Cladellas, and Jose Vicente Santafe Llopis in 1987.

“Aral lizard” from Late Cretaceous Aral Sea in central Kazakhstan. Named by Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky in 1968.

“Araripe lizard” from Early Cretaceous Brazil. It was named for the Araripe Plateau, northeastern Brazil, location of the Santana Formation, where the fossil was found. Named by Brazilian paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price in 1971.

The “ruling lizards”; the superorder of advanced diapsids that includes the modern crocodiles as well as the theodonts, perosaurs, and dinosaurs. Archosaurs are believed to have first appeared in the earliest Triassic period.

Meaning “ruling lizards”, was a family of Theocodonts; Crocodilians; Saurischian dinosaurs; Birds; Ornithischian dinosaurs; and Pterosaurs. Most groups lived in the Mesozoic Era’s Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.