Claosaurus
Name:
Claosaurus
(Broken lizard).
Phonetic: Clay-o-sore-us.
Named By: Othniel Charles Marsh - 1890.
Synonyms: Hadrosaurus agilis.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hadrosauroidea.
Species: C. agilis (type),
C.
affinis?
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Roughly about 3.5 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Kansas - Niobrara
Formation, Montana - Pierre Shale Formation, South Dakota -
Pierre Shale Formation, Texas - Aguja Formation.
Time period: Campanian/Maastrichtian of the
Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of a few
individuals.
First
named as a species of Hadrosaurus
by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1872,
Marsh later renamed this species as a distinct genus, Claosaurus
in
1890. A second species, C. affinis, is now
considered to be
highly dubious, not only upon the grounds that it was based upon
very fragmentary toe bones, but that this fossils have now become
lost, making further studies on this species impossible.
Claosaurus
is so far notable for three reasons. First is that the genus is
considered to be a hadrosauroid,
the group that the more advanced
hadrosaurids (i.e. Edmontosaurus,
Parasaurolophus,
Hypacrosaurus,
etc) came from. Claosaurus however is so far
the
most advanced hadrosauroid known without actually being a true
hadrosaurid. Second is that Claosaurus grew to a
fairly small size
averaging only about three and a half meters in length. Third, is
that several specimens of Claosaurus have been
found in marine
sediments. This could either indicate that these individuals were
living in coastal environments, or were swept out to sea in flood
waters.
Further reading
-Additional characters of the Ceratopsidae, with notice of new
Cretaceous dinosaurs. - American Journal of Science 39:418-426.
- Othniel Charles Marsh - 1890.
- The type of Claosaurus (?) affinis Wieland.
- American
Journal of Science 246: 29–30. - Joseph T. Gregory -
1948.
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