Cetiosaurus

whale lizard

• cetios · Greek · whale-like, sea monster
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name means "whale lizard". Richard Owen named it in 1841 from large bones, mainly vertebrae, that he thought belonged to a huge marine, whale-like reptile. Later discoveries showed it was a large land-living sauropod, but the name was kept.

Named by

Owen

Year named

1841

Period

Middle Jurassic

Stage

Bathonian

Found in

England (e.g. Oxfordshire and the Midlands, Great Oolite/Forest Marble); related material reported from Morocco

Cetiosaurus was one of the first sauropods described, and it was named before the term "dinosaur" existed. The type species is C. oxoniensis (Phillips, 1871), which replaced the original type species C. medius. Some referred species, including Moroccan material, are debated.