Elosaurus
EE-loh-SORE-us /ˌiːloʊˈsɔːrəs/
Synonym of Brontosaurus
marsh lizard
- helos (elos) · Greek · marsh, meadow
- sauros · Greek · lizard
The name combines the Greek "helos" (marsh or meadow) with "sauros" (lizard), so it is usually translated as "marsh lizard". Peterson and Gilmore gave it to a large sauropod from the Morrison Formation. It is now regarded as an example of the well-known Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus group, not a separate genus.
- Named by
- Peterson and Gilmore
- Year named
- 1902
- Period
- Late Jurassic
- Found in
- Morrison Formation, Wyoming, USA
Elosaurus is a junior synonym. Its type species, E. parvus, is now generally treated as Brontosaurus parvus (Tschopp et al., 2015). Researchers who place all of these species in Apatosaurus would instead treat it as a synonym of Apatosaurus. The etymology and locality details are given with moderate confidence.