Caseosaurus
Encyclopedia
Caseosaurus is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 from the Late Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

 of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. The type species
Type species
In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

, Caseosaurus crosbyensis, was formally described by Hunt, Lucas
Spencer G. Lucas
Spencer George Lucas is an American paleontologist and stratigrapher, and curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. His main areas of study are late Paleozoic, Mesozoic and early Cenozoic vertebrate fossils, stratigraphy, and continental deposits,...

, Heckert, Sullivan and Lockley in 1998. It was found in the Dockum Formation of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, in strata dating to the Late Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

. It may, in fact, be the same dinosaur as Chindesaurus
Chindesaurus
Chindesaurus is a genus of saurischian dinosaur named after Chinde Point , near where the genoholotype specimen was discovered in the Chinle Formation of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, by Bryan Small in 1985...

, another early dinosaur from the same period and geological region. It has tentatively been classified as a relative of Herrerasaurus
Herrerasaurus
Herrerasaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs. All known specimens of this carnivore have been discovered in rocks of late Ladinian age in northwestern Argentina...

.

External links

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