Pachysauriscus

thick lizard (little/junior)

• pachys · Greek · thick, stout
• sauros · Greek · lizard
• -iscus · Latin · diminutive or junior suffix

The name combines the Greek words 'pachys' (thick/stout) and 'sauros' (lizard), with the Latin diminutive suffix '-iscus', giving the overall sense of 'little thick lizard' or 'junior thick lizard'. The '-iscus' ending was sometimes used to signal a relationship to, or distinction from, another genus — in this case Pachysaurus. The name likely refers to the robust, stout build inferred from the fossil material.

Named by

Kuhn

Year named

1959

Period

Late Triassic

Stages

Carnian – Norian

Found in

Germany (Trossingen Formation / Stubensandstein)

Pachysauriscus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It was erected by Oskar Kuhn in 1959 for fragmentary prosauropod material from the Late Triassic of Germany. The genus has also been treated as a junior synonym of Plateosaurus by various authors, as the material is considered too incomplete to reliably distinguish it from other plateosaurid prosauropods from the same region. It is a dinosaur (prosauropod / plateosaurid).