Epidendrosaurus

on-tree lizard (tree lizard)

• epi- · Greek · upon, on
• dendron · Greek · tree
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name means "upon-tree lizard", or roughly "tree-dwelling lizard". It was chosen because the type specimen, a small juvenile, has an elongated third finger and curved claws. The authors took these as signs that the animal lived and climbed in trees.

Named by

Zhang et al.

Year named

2002

Period

Middle to Late Jurassic

Found in

Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China

Epidendrosaurus is a small, early scansoriopterygid theropod. Its type species is E. ninchengensis. Some researchers think it is the same animal as Scansoriopteryx, which Czerkas and Yuan named in the same year. They would treat one name as a synonym of the other. Which name has priority, and whether the two are really distinct, is debated. The exact age of the Daohugou beds is also debated.