Fabrosaurus

Fabre's lizard

• Fabre · Latin/French proper noun · after Jean Henri Fabre (or the Fabre family)
• saurus · Greek · lizard

The name honours the Fabre family, specifically in recognition of their contribution to the discovery of the fossil material in Lesotho. The second element, '-saurus', is from the Greek 'sauros' meaning 'lizard', a standard suffix in dinosaur nomenclature. The genus was named by Ginsburg in 1964 on the basis of a partial lower jaw. Because the material is so fragmentary, the genus is considered a nomen dubium by most modern researchers.

Named by

Ginsburg

Year named

1964

Period

Early Jurassic

Stages

Hettangian – Sinemurian

Found in

Upper Elliot Formation, Lesotho (formerly Basutoland), southern Africa

Fabrosaurus is widely regarded as a nomen dubium because it is based on extremely fragmentary material — a single partial dentary (lower jawbone) with a few teeth. It was originally described as an ornithischian dinosaur, and for a time its name was loosely applied to more complete small ornithischian material from the same formation (material now typically referred to Lesothosaurus diagnosticus). Most contemporary paleontologists do not consider Fabrosaurus a valid genus, and the family-level name "Fabrosauridae," once used broadly for early ornithischians, has largely been abandoned.