Othnielosaurus
oth-NEEL-oh-SORE-us /ˌoθˌniːloʊˈsɔːrəs/
Accepted genus
Othniel's lizard
- Othniel · Latinised personal name · Othniel Charles Marsh, American paleontologist
- sauros · Greek · lizard
The name honours Othniel Charles Marsh, the 19th-century American paleontologist who first described the animal (as Nanosaurus consors) in 1894. It combines his first name with the Greek word for "lizard". Galton coined it in 2007 as a replacement for the earlier name Othnielia, which was based on a poorly supported type species.
- Named by
- Galton
- Year named
- 2007
- Period
- Late Jurassic
- Stages
- Kimmeridgian – Tithonian
- Found in
- Morrison Formation, western USA
A small, bipedal, plant-eating basal neornithischian. The type species is Othnielosaurus consors, originally named Nanosaurus consors by Marsh in 1894 and later placed in Othnielia. Some researchers still use Othnielia or question how it relates to other small Morrison ornithischians.