Chilesaurus

Chile lizard

• Chile · Modern place name (Spanish) · Chile, the country of discovery
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines "Chile", the country where the fossils were found, with the Greek word for lizard. The type species is Chilesaurus diegosuarezi, named for Diego Suárez, a young boy who discovered the first bones in 2004 while on a trip with his geologist parents. Chilesaurus is an odd, herbivorous theropod-like dinosaur that has been placed in several different groups, including as a basal tyrannosauroid or an early ornithischian.

Named by

Novas et al.

Year named

2015

Period

Late Jurassic

Stage

Tithonian

Found in

Toqui Formation, Aysén Region, southern Chile

Its exact position in the dinosaur family tree is debated. It was first described as a basal tetanuran theropod, and later studies have suggested it may be an early ornithischian.