Leaellynasaura

Leaellyn's lizard

• Leaellyn · English (personal name) · Leaellyn Rich, daughter of the discoverers
• saura · Greek · lizard

Leaellynasaura was named after Leaellyn Rich, the daughter of the palaeontologists Thomas Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, who discovered and described it. The name combines her first name with the Greek word for lizard. It is a small, big-eyed, probably cold-adapted ornithopod from polar Australia.

Named by

Rich and Rich

Year named

1989

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stages

Aptian – Albian

Found in

Eumeralla Formation, Dinosaur Cove, Victoria, Australia

Type species is Leaellynasaura amicagraphica. The species name refers to the Graphic Friends (Amica graphica), the supporters who funded the work. Its fossils come from a polar environment, and the endocast suggests large optic lobes.