Geranosaurus

crane lizard

• geranos · Greek · crane (the bird)
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines the Greek word 'geranos' (γέρανος), meaning "crane," with the Greek 'sauros', meaning "lizard." It was chosen because the animal's slender limb bones reminded the describer of the long, gracile legs of a crane bird. This reflects a common Victorian-era practice of naming dinosaurs after living animals whose body proportions they seemed to echo.

Named by

Broom

Year named

1911

Period

Early Jurassic

Stages

Hettangian – Pliensbachian

Found in

Upper Elliot Formation, Cape Province, South Africa

Geranosaurus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It was described by Robert Broom in 1911 from fragmentary jaw material from the Upper Elliot Formation of South Africa. The material is too incomplete to reliably diagnose the genus, and it cannot be confidently distinguished from other heterodontosaurid ornithischians from the same formation. It is classified as an ornithischian dinosaur, possibly a heterodontosaurid.