Revueltosaurus

Revuelto lizard

• Revuelto · Spanish/Place name · referring to Revuelto Creek, New Mexico, USA
• saurus · Greek · lizard

The name combines "Revuelto," a reference to Revuelto Creek in Quay County, New Mexico, where the original fossil teeth were discovered, with the Greek suffix "-saurus," meaning "lizard." The creek's name itself derives from Spanish, meaning "turbulent" or "churned up." The genus was originally described on the basis of isolated teeth and was initially thought to belong to an ornithischian dinosaur, but later reassessment revealed it to be an archosaur more closely related to crocodilians.

Named by

Hunt

Year named

1989

Period

Late Triassic

Stage

Norian

Found in

Chinle Formation, New Mexico and Arizona, USA

Originally described as an ornithischian dinosaur based on isolated teeth, but a 2002 study by Parker et al. of more complete skeletal material demonstrated that Revueltosaurus is actually a pseudosuchian archosaur (a member of the crocodilian line), not a dinosaur at all. It is therefore not a dinosaur, despite its historical classification as one. Its reassignment is a well-known cautionary tale about identifying dinosaurs from teeth alone.