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

A “Sonora lizard” from Mid Cretaceous Sonora Desert, southern Arizona.

It is now being investigated by researchers at the Sonoran Desert Museum, in Tucson, and was found in the Mid Cretaceous Turney Ranch Formation in Pima County, Arizona.

It was discovered in 1994 by Richard Thompson, a University of Arizona student, as he was hiking in a remote southern Arizona canyon looking for petrified wood.

This dinosaur belongs to a family of long necked sauropods called brachiosaurs. Since it is a new kind of brachiosaur paleontologists were able to assign this fossil a new taxonomic name, Sonorasaurus (from the Sonoran Desert) thompsoni (honoring Richard Thompson, the discoverer).

The age of the sandstone in which it was found appears to be Mid Cretaceous, about 100 million years old, and it appears that Sonorasaurus thompsoni may geologically be the youngest brachiosaur ever found. Named by Ratkevich in 1998.

“Sister-avisaur” a reference to the sister-group relationship inferred for Avisaurus and Soroavisaurus, according to a cladistic analysis. From Late Cretaceous South America. Named by U. S. paleontologist Luis M. Chiappe in 1993.

One of a large group of huge, flesh-eating dinosaurs: The spinosaurids, dating back to the Middle or Late Jurassic period and existing in the Cretaceous period, developed long spines jutting up from their backbones. They were also named by the German paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach in 1915.

A very large and carnivorous dinosaur: The extinct spinosaurus from the Late Cretaceous period is known as the "spine lizard". It was named by the German paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach in 1915.

A "vertebra lizard"; the name is based on a form found in Kimmeridge Clay of the Moscow Basin, Russia.

Named by German paleontologist Jena Fischer in 1845.

A “cross lizard” from Late Triassic. Named for the Southern Cross star group, best seen in the Southern Hemisphere. The only genus yet described lived in Brazil and Argentina, South America. It was named by Edwin Harris Colbert (born 1905) in 1970.

A “cross (southern cross) lizard” from Middle or Late Triassic Santa Maria, southern Brazil. It was named for the constellation of the Southern Cross, which marks the Southen Hemisphere, including Brazil. Named by Colbert in 1970.

Stegosaurs that were quadruped, plant-eating, ornithischian dinosasurs. They lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous periods.

“Stegosaur form (like)” was named from a few bones, now probably lost. From Late Cretaceous northern China. This creature was formerly known as Hypsirophus.

A “roof” or “roofed (plated) lizard” from Late Jurassic Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming (USA). This creature was formerly called a Diracodon. Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1877.

A "narrow-clawed lizard" from Late Cretaceous period and found in southern Alberta, Canada. This creature was previously known as Polyodontosaurus. Named by U. S. fossil hunter Charles Mortram Sternberg (1885-1981) in 1932.

A dinosaur man-like model, called a Dinosauroid stands in an Ottawa museum. Some Canadian paleontologists theorize that this Stenonychosaurus could have given rise to such brainy descendants had dinosaurs endured instead of dying out.

This nomenclature (“crowned lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Lambeosaurus. Named by Lawrence M. Lambe in 1914.

A “strong lizard” from Early Jurassic Europe. Named by U. S. paleontologist Alastair Watson in 1909.

“Stokes’ lizard” from Late Jurassic Utah, USA. It was named for American paleontologist William Lee Stokes. Named by U. S. paleontologist James H. Madsen in 1974.

This nomenclature (“vigorous lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Riojasaurus. Named by Argentinian paleontologist José Bonaparte in 1969.