Embasaurus

Emba lizard

• Emba · Kazakh/Russian · the Emba River (Kazakhstan)
• saurus · Greek · lizard

Embasaurus is named after the Emba River (also spelled Zhem) in western Kazakhstan, near where the fossil material was discovered. The second element, '-saurus', comes from the Greek 'sauros', meaning 'lizard', a standard suffix used in dinosaur names. The name therefore means 'Emba lizard', honoring the geographic locality of the find. It was named by the Soviet palaeontologist Riabinin in 1931.

Named by

Riabinin

Year named

1931

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Berriasian

Found in

Emba River region, western Kazakhstan

Embasaurus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It is thought to be a large theropod dinosaur (possibly a tetanuran or a carnosaur of some kind), but the fragmentary nature of the material — consisting of only a few vertebrae — prevents confident classification or diagnosis. It cannot be reliably distinguished from other theropods on the basis of the known remains.