Thecodontosaurus

socket-tooth lizard

• theke · Greek · socket, sheath
• odous/odont- · Greek · tooth
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name means "socket-tooth lizard". It refers to the teeth, which sit in individual sockets in the jaw. Riley and Stutchbury chose it in 1836, when this feature was thought to link the animal to certain other reptiles with teeth set in sockets.

Named by

Riley and Stutchbury

Year named

1836

Period

Late Triassic

Stage

Rhaetian

Found in

Fissure fills near Bristol, England (Durdham Down and Tytherington), UK

One of the earliest dinosaurs to be named, and the fourth to be formally named after Megalosaurus, Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus. It is a basal sauropodomorph. Its original type material was destroyed in the bombing of Bristol in WWII.