Omosaurus

shoulder lizard

• omos · Greek · shoulder
• sauros · Greek · lizard

Omosaurus comes from the Greek "omos" (shoulder) and "sauros" (lizard), so it means "shoulder lizard". The name refers to the shoulder region of the skeleton. Owen applied it in 1875 to a stegosaur from the Late Jurassic of England.

Named by

Owen

Year named

1875

Period

Late Jurassic

Stage

Kimmeridgian

Found in

Kimmeridge Clay, Wiltshire, England

Omosaurus Owen, 1875 (type species O. armatus) is a junior homonym. The name had already been used by Leidy in 1856 for a non-dinosaurian reptile, a phytosaur. The stegosaur was therefore given the replacement name Dacentrurus by Lucas in 1902. Dacentrurus is the valid genus, and Omosaurus is an invalid, preoccupied name for it. The exact stage range of the original material is given from memory and should be checked.