Eucercosaurus

well-tailed lizard

• eu- · Greek · well, good, true
• kerkos · Greek · tail
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines three Greek elements: 'eu' (well/good), 'kerkos' (tail), and 'sauros' (lizard), giving the overall meaning of 'well-tailed lizard'. It was named in reference to features of the tail vertebrae that were considered distinctive at the time of its description. The name was coined by Harry Seeley in 1879 based on fragmentary material from England.

Named by

Seeley

Year named

1879

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Barremian

Found in

Cambridge Greensand, England, UK

Eucercosaurus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It was described by Harry Seeley in 1879 from highly fragmentary material — isolated vertebrae from the Cambridge Greensand of England — that does not preserve enough diagnostic features to be reliably assigned to a more specific taxon. It is thought to represent an ankylosaur or possibly an ornithopod, but the material is too incomplete to be certain. It is not a valid, diagnosable genus in most modern assessments.