Gwyneddosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Gwyneddosaurus"
fossil_range = Late Triassic


image_width=250px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
infraclassis = Archosauromorpha
ordo = Prolacertiformes
familia = Tanystrophidae
genus = "Gwyneddosaurus"
genus_authority = Bock, 1945
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "G. erici"

"Gwyneddosaurus" is an extinct genus of aquatic tanystropheid. The type species, "G. erici" was described in 1945 by Bock, who identified it as a coelurosaurian dinosaur. Its remains were found in the Upper Triassic Lockatong Formation of eastern Pennsylvania, and include skull fragments, several vertebra, ribs, gastralia, partial shoulder and hip bones, and several forelimb and hindlimb elements. It was not a large animal; its thigh bone was only 23 millimeters long (0.91 in). Friedrich von Huene assigned the animal to Protorosauria in 1948 as the smallest known member of the group, finding it to be most like "Macrocnemus".cite journal |last=von Huene |first=Friedrich |year=1948 |title=Notes on "Gwyneddosaurus" |journal=American Journal of Science |volume=246 |pages=208-213] Steel (1970) classified it as a theropod dinosaur,cite journal|last=Steel|first=R.|year= 1970|title=Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology|journal= Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart|pages=1–87] whereas Olsen and Baird (1986) identified it as a chimera of mixed remains from a coelacanth and possibly the tanystropheid "Tanytrachelos".cite book |last=Olsen |first=P.E. |coauthors=and Baird, D. |year=1986 |chapter=The ichnogenus "Atreipus" and its significance for Triassic biostratigraphy |title=In The Beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs: Faunal Change across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary |editor=Padian, K. (editor) |pages=61-87 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0521367794 ]

References

* [http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=checkTaxonInfo&taxon_no=80906 "Gwyneddosaurus" at the Paleobiology Database]