Halticosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Halticosaurus"
fossil_range = Late Triassic


image_width=200px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo=Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Theropoda
superfamilia = Coelophysoidea
genus = "Halticosaurus"
genus_authority = Huene, 1908
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"H. longotarsus" Huene, 1908 (type)

"Halticosaurus" (meaning "nimble lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic period (Norian stage, around 205 to 210 million years ago). It was a coelophysoid found in what is present-day Germany. Some researchers consider "Halticosaurus" the same genus as "Liliensternus", but Samuel Welles (1984) found differences in the femoral head and the anterior trochanter.

The type species, "Halticosaurus longotarsus", was based on partial jawbones and teeth, partial vertebrae, a few arm and leg bones, and fragments of an ilium, and was found mixed in with the remains of a prosauropod dinosaur, "Sellosaurus gracilis". A second species assigned to this genus, "Halticosaurus orbitoangulatus", turned out to be a crocodylomorph (Rauhut and Hungerbuhler, 2000). A third species, "H. liliensterni", has been reclassified as "Liliensternus".

References

* Rauhut, O.M.W. and Hungerbuhler, A. (2000) "A review of European Triassic theropods". "Gaia" 15: 75-88.

External links

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5a8b382.htm "Halticosaurus" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair
* [http://dml.cmnh.org/2001May/msg00024.html "Halticosaurus" from the Dinosaur Mailing List]