(“??lizard”) Named by Zijin Zhao in 1986.

(“??lizard”) Named by Zijin Zhao in 1986.

This nomenclature (“Danube River lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Struthiosaurus. Named by Emanuel Bunzel in 1871.

A “frightful lizard” from Late Cretaceous Alberta, Canada. Named by Dale Alan Russell in 1970.

A “Datou lizard” from Middle Jurassic Datou, a village in Sichuan Province, China. The name means, “chieftain (big head) lizard”. Named by Chinese paleontologists Zhiming Dong and Tang Zhilu in 1984.

A “river-delta lizard” that was an early amphibian, but not a dinosaur. It was named by Cosgriff in 196
5. Fossils were found in Australia.

A “Denver lizard” from the Late Cretaceous period. A reference to the Denver Museum of Natural History, where the specimen was kept, before being identified as a distinct taxon. Named by U. S. paleontologist and dinosaur artist Robert T. Bakker in 1988.

Means “second sauropod foot” from Early Jurassic period and is known only from fossilized footprints that were found near Lesotho, South Africa.

A “Central Yunnan lizard” from Early Jurassic China. Named for the Dianzhong Basin, central Yunnan Province, China. Named by Chinese paleontologist Yang Zhong-jian (also known as: Chung Chien Young) in 1982.

A “bifurcated (two-forked) (vertebrae) lizard” from the Late Jurassic period. Partial fossils were found in East Africa. Named by Verner Janensch in 1914.

A “two-ridged (double crested) lizard” from Early Jurassic Arizona and China. Named by U. S. paleontologist Samuel Paul Welles in 1970.

This nomenclature (“terrible lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Plateosaurus. Named by J. Pidancet and S. Chopard in 1962.

“Porto Dinheiro lizard” from Late Jurassic Portugal. Named for Porto Dinheiro, west-central Portugal in 199
9. Named by José Bonaparte and Octavio Mateus in 1999.

Meaning, “a terrible lizard”, is a general name for two orders of extinct reptiles, the “lizard-hipped” Saurischia and the “bird-hipped” Ornithischia. Certain types of saurischian dinosaurs were the largest animals ever to live on land.

Known as “fearfully-great lizards” or “terrible lizards”, these terrestrial or amphibious reptiles were often of great size from the Triassic and Cretaceous periods. Although most were herbivorous, some of the later species in the Cretaceous period were carnivorous and probably extremely fierce. Dinosauria are the most recent common ancestor of Triceratops and modern birds, and all its descendants. Dinosaurs were wholly terrestrial, with no known aquatic species. Only one major clade of dinosaurs, Aves (“birds”), survives today. Coined by Sir Richard Owen in 1841.

Of, relating to, or characteristic of a dinosaur.

Resembling or like a dinosaur.

One who specializes in the study of dinosaurs.

The study of dinosaurs.

This nomenclature (“terrible lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Plateosaurus.

A “disk (vertebra) lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America. Named by Joseph Leidy in 1852.

This nomenclature (“spear-carrier lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Kentrosaurus. Named by Franz Baron Nopcsa in 1916.

“Dravidanadu lizard” from Late Cretaceous southern India. It was named for Dravidandu, the region of the southern Indian peninsula where it was found. Named by P. Yadagiri and K. Ayyasami in 1979.

A “running (swift) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Alberta, Canada, and USA. Named by George Frederic Matthew (1837-?) and paleontologist Barnum Brown (1873-1963) in 1922.

This nomenclature (“quickly-walking lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Massospondylus. Named by van Hoepener in 1920.

An “oak (tree) lizard” from Middle-Late Jurassic western USA, eastern England, Tanzania, and Romania. The name refers to the dinosaur's forest habitat and leaf-eating diet. The word drys meant a large tree in ancient Greek, in particular the oak. Although the meaning “oak” is used in botanical nomenclature, the more general meaning “tree” is nearly universal in zoological nomenclature, apart from a few insect names. For example, the name Dryophis, “tree snake” was used for a snake found in Africa, and has no connection with the “oak tree.”

A family of “wounding lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America and Asia.

“Dryptosaurus form” is the name given to six big spinal bones found in central India in rocks laid down in Late Cretaceous times. Named by German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1932.

A “wounding (or tearing) lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America (New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado, Montana, and perhaps Wyoming). Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1877.

This nomenclature (“powerful lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Tyrannosaurus. Named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1905.

This nomenclature (“double-armored lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Euoplocephalus. Named by William Arthur Parks in 1924.

This nomenclature (“uncatchable lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Dryosaurus. Named by Hans Virchow in 1921.

A “bad place (hard-to-place) lizard” from Late Jurassic or Late Cretaceous North America (Wyoming). Dyslocosaurus is thought to be the last of an unknown line of North American sauropods. The possibility exists that its remains were improperly dated and that rather than being from the Late Cretaceous, it is actually from the Late Jurassic. Named by John Stanton McIntosh (1923-), Walter P. Coombs, Jr., and Dale Alan Russell in 1992.

A “two-column (double-beamed [vertebra]) lizard” from Late Jurassic. Recent research suggests that this type of vertebra may be part of the huge Supersaurus skeleton found near the same site at Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in Colorado, and so belongs to a diplodocid, not a brachiosaurid. This fossil may really be a Supersaurus. Named by U. S. paleontologist James A. Jensen in 1985.

An “Ebrach lizard” from Late Triassic Ebrach, Germany. It was named for the town in the Franconia region of central Germany, near where the fossil was found.

A “ground-earth lizard” that lived during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Its fossils have been found in Europe and North America.

“Edmonton lizard” from Late Cretaceous Edmonton Formation of Alberta (Canada), Montana, and New Jersey. This animal was formerly known as Anatosaurus, Thespesius, and Trachodon. Named by Canadian fossil hunter Lawrence M. Lambe in 1917.

A “buffalo (bison) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Montana. The name is based on Black Feet Indian eini, “buffalo” to honor the Black Feet tribe, on whose land in Montana the fossils were found, referring also to the idea that ceratopsians were the “buffalo” of the Cretaceous, living in large, socially complex herds. Named by paleontologist Scott Matthew Sampson in 1995.

A “light (lightweight) lizard” from Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Algeria, Tanzania, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, south-central Niger, and North America. The Greek elaphros, “nimble, light-weight, fleet” named for its light, slender body. Named by Verner Janensch in 1920.

A “plate (bone) lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America. It was a plesiosaur, not a dinosaur. Named by Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) in 1868.

A “foot lizard” from Late Cretaceous southern Mongolia. It was found in 1970 in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. The name is based on Mongolian olmyi, “sole of the foot, hindfoot”. Named by Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmólska (Osmolska) in 1981.

A “marsh lizard” based on the supposed “marshy“ lifestyle of sauropods and Othniel Charles Marsh’s name, the nomenclator. Named by U. S. paleontologists Oscar A. Peterson and Charles Whitney Gilmore in 1902.

Named for Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität from Early Jurassic Griefswald, northern Germany. Named by paleontologist Hartmut Haubold in 1990.

“Emba lizard” from Late Cretaceous period and found near the Emba River in Kazakhstan. Named by Anatoly Nicolaevich Riabinin in 1931.

A “mysterious (enigma, riddle, or mystery) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Mongolia. Named by Mongolian paleontologist Rinchen (Rinchengiyn) Barsbold and Altangerel Perle in 1983.

A “dawn-thunder lizard”.from Greek, eos, “dawn” and bronte, “thunder”; Late Cretaceous. Named by Robert T. Bakker in 1998.

A “heavy (ponderous) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Argentina. Based on Greek epakhthes, “heavy, ponderous” to indicate a large sauropod. Named by Jaime Eduardo Powell in 1990.

A “guardian lizard”. From Greek, episcopos, “guardian, protector”.

An “oar lizard”. Its name comes Greek, eretmos, “oar”. From Early Jurassic Europe, and it was named by Harry Govier Seeley in 1874.

“Erlik’s lizard” from Late Cretaceous Mongolia. Named for Erlik, Lamaist, king of the dead, according to a Buddhist sect in Mongolia. Named by Rinchengiyn Barsold and Altangerel Perle in 1980.

A “sharp-pointed (good or true pointed) lizard” from Late Cretaceous Alberta, Canada. Named by Daniel J. Chure and John Stanton McIntosh (1923-) in 1989.

This nomenclature (“good-tailed lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Acanthopholis. Named by Harry Govier Seeley in 1879.

This nomenclature (“good-tibia lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Euskelosaurus. Named by van Hoepen in 1920.

A tortoise-like reptile (not a dinosaur). It may be an ancestor of the modern-day turtle. Its fossil was found in South Africa.

An Ichthyosaur from Early Jurassic Germany. It was not a dinosaur but another type of extinct reptile.

A “broad lizard” from Early Jurassic Europe. It was found in Echenoz-la-Meline, France, and was named by Albert Gaudry in 1878.

A “well-limbed (good-legged) lizard” from Late Triassic Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This creature was formerly known as Eucnemesaurus, Gigantoscelus, Melanorosaurus, Orinosaurus, Orosaurus, and Plateosauravus. Named by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) in 1866.