Chondrosteosaurus

cartilage-bone lizard

• chondros · Greek · cartilage
• osteon · Greek · bone
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines the Greek words "chondros" (cartilage), "osteon" (bone), and "sauros" (lizard), meaning roughly "cartilage-bone lizard." It was chosen by Richard Owen in 1876 to reflect the highly porous, spongy texture of the vertebrae, which resembled a structure intermediate between cartilage and solid bone. This characteristic open, cancellous bone construction is now understood to be typical of large sauropod dinosaurs. The name thus describes a notable anatomical feature of the fossil material rather than a geographic location or person.

Named by

Owen

Year named

1876

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Barremian

Found in

Wessex Formation, Isle of Wight, England, UK

Chondrosteosaurus is a sauropod dinosaur (likely a titanosauriform or brachiosaurid) known only from fragmentary cervical vertebrae. It is widely regarded as a nomen dubium because the material is too incomplete to reliably diagnose the genus or distinguish it from other sauropods of the same formation. Some historical sources have considered it a possible synonym of Pelorosaurus, but this has not been conclusively established.