A “Naaskhoibito lizard” from Late Cretaceous New Mexico. Its name comes from Navajo na‘asho‘i, “lizard creek” and it was named for the Naashoibito Member of the Kirtland Formation, New Mexico. Named by Adrian Paul Hunt and Frederic Augustus Lucas (1852-1929) in 1993.

A “dwarf (pygmy) lizard” from Late Jurassic Colorado and Utah (USA). Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1877.

A “Nanshiung (Nanxiong) lizard” from Late Cretaceous China. It was named for the Nanxiong (Nanhsiung) Formation in Guangdong Province, China; where the fossil was found in the Nanxiong Basin. Named by Chinese paleontologist Zhiming Dong in 1979.

A “Nemegt lizard” from Late Cretaceous Nemegt Basin (rock beds), in the Gobi desert, southern Mongolia; where it was discovered. Named by Aleksander Nowinski in 1971.

This nomenclature (“unique lizard” [from Greek neos, “new”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Hypsibema.Named by U. S. paleontologist Charles Whitney Gilmore and Stewart in 1945.

A “Neuquen lizard” from Late Cretaceous Argentina. It was found in Neuquen Province, Argentina. Named by Jaime Eduardo Powell in 1992.

A “?? lizard” from ?? Named by Zijin Zhao in 1983.

A “Neckar River lizard” from Late Triassic Europe, South America, and possibly in North America (although this is challenged). This fossil name is based on the ancient Latin name for the Neckar River in southern Germany. Named by O. Fraas in 1866.

A “Niobrara lizard” from Late Cretaceous Kansas. It was named for the Niobrara Chalk Formation in Kansas. Named by Kenneth Carpenter (Denver Museum of Natural History), Dilkes, and David B. Weishampel in 1995.

A “Japanese lizard” from Late Cretaceous Japan. Its bones came from a mine on Sakhalin Island, once part of Japan, when in 1945, after World War II; all of Sakhalin Island came under the authority of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Federation) and the Japanese population was repatriated. Named by Japanese paleontologist Koichi Nagai in 1936.

A “northwestern Argentina lizard” from Late Cretaceous Argentina. It was found in Salta province, northwest Argentina. It was named from the Spanish abbreviation for “noroeste Argentina”, the region including Salta Province. Named by Argentinian paleontologist José Bonaparte and Jaime Eduardo Powell in 1980.

A “knob-headed lizard” from Late Cretaceous New Mexico. It was found in the Kirtland Formation, San Juan County, New Mexico. Named by Robert M. Sullivan in 1999.

One division of the ankyloaurs, a group of armored, plant-eating, ornithischian dinosaurs with spikes running along the sides of their bodies.

This “knob (node) lizard” from Early Cretaceous North America (Wyoming and Kansas). Named by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1889.

A nothosaur, a reptile with flipper-like limbs that lived both on land and in the water similar to the modern-day seal. It is believed to have lived during the Triassic period. Fossils were found in what is now Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland), North Africa, and Asia (China, Israel, and Russia). It was not a dinosaur but another type of reptile.

A “Nyasa lizard” from Middle Triassic near Lake Nyasa, in Tanzania. Named by English paleontologist Alan J. Charig in 1967.

A “night (bat) lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America.

An “Ohmden’s lizard” from Early Jurassic near Ohmden, in Holzmaden, Germany. Named by paleontologist Rupert Wild in 1978.

This nomenclature (“small lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Mochlodon or Rabdodon. Named by Harry Govier Seeley in 1881.

An “Omei (Mount Emei) lizard” from Late Jurassic China. The Chinese Omei, “lofty” plus mei, “brow”; the name of a sacred mountain, Omeishan, some 100 kilometers west of Yunghsien in Sichuan Province, China. Named by Chinese paleontologist Yang Zhong-jian (also known as: Chung Chien Young) in 1939.

This nomenclature (“forelimb lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Dacentrurus. Named by British anatomist Sir Richard Owen, 1875/Joseph Leidy, 1856.

This nomenclature (“barbed lizard” [Greek onykh- (onyx), “claw, nail, barb”]) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Struthiosaurus or Rabdodon. Named by Franz Baron Nopcsa in 1902.

An Ichthyosaur from Late Jurassic England, France, Argentina, and western North America. It was not a dinosaur but another type of extinct reptile.

This nomenclature (“armored lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Pelorosaurus. Named by François Louis Paul Gervais in 1852.

This nomenclature (“mountain 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 British paleontologist Richard Lydekker in 1889.

These “bird lizard” had this name proposed by an Italian ornithologist to indicate that pterosaurs had an anatomical organization between that of birds and reptiles.

A “Oron lizard” from Late Cretaceous Be’er Sheva, Negev Desert. Named by Per Christiansen (Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark) and Niels Bonde (Geological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark), 1999 (?).

A “roofed lizard” from Late Cretaceous North America. Named by Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) in 1887.

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

A “straight-angled lizard” found in Late Cretaceous rocks in India. It was named for a tooth with a straight, serrated distal margin and a curved unserrated mesial margin. Named by Indian paleontologist H. C. Das-Gupta in 1931.

An Early Jurassic dinosaur that is believed to have existed in what is now China. It was named by Chinese paleontologist Zijin Zhao in 1986.

A “brave (fearless, valiant) lizard” from Early Cretaceous Sahara Desert of Niger, North Africa. The term ourane in Niger dialect means “fearless or valiant”. From a name used for the desert monitor (Varanus griseus) by the Tuareg tribe of Niger. The fossils were found in the Gadoufaouna deposits, southwest of Elrahz. Named by Philippe Taquet in 1976.

These “boneheads” were strange bipeds with thick skulls. These might have served as crash-helmets to protect the brain when rival males banged heads.

A “thick-headed lizard” from Late Cretaceous Montana. Named by paleontologist Barnum Brown (1873-1963) and Schlaikjer in 1943.

A “thick-rib lizard” from Middle Jurassic Europe. Named by David Martill and Sibylle Noe in 1996.

A “thick-nosed lizard” from Late Cretaceous Alberta, Canada; and Alaska. Named by U. S. fossil hunter Charles Mortram Sternberg (1885-1981) in 1950.

This nomenclature (“thick 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 German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene, 1908 or L. J. Fitzinger, in 1843 (?).

Meaning “old (ancient) lizard ancestor” from Late Triassic Bristol, England. This creature was previously known as Palaeosaurus. Named by Oskar Kuhn in 1959.

This nomenclature (“ancient lizard”) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Palaeosauriscus. Named by S. H. Riley and Samuel Stutchbury, 1836/Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1833.

Means “fully (completely)-armored lizard” from Late Cretaceous Alberta, Canada to Texas and Montana, USA. This creature was formerly called an Edmontonia. Named by Canadian paleontologist Lawrence M. Lambe in 1919.

Means “all lizard” from Late Jurassic North America. Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1893.

Means “near lizard” from Late Jurassic North America. Named by Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) in 1893.

Means “beside-ridged lizard” from Late Cretaceous New Mexico, Utah, and Alberta, Canada. Named by William Arthur Parks in 1922.

Named by British anatomist Sir Richard Owen in 1876.

Meaning “Parks’ lizard” from Late Cretaceous Montana and Alberta, Canada. Named for William Arthur Parks (1868-1939), a Canadian paleontologist. Named by U. S. fossil hunter Charles Mortram Sternberg (1885-1981) in 1937.

This nomenclature (“Parr’s lizard” in honor of Albert Eide Parr, an American zoologist) is no longer recognized by scientists because they found that it described an animal that was previously given another name which is Hypsibema or Hadrosaurus. Named by U. S. paleontologist Charles Whitney Gilmore in 1945.

“Patagonian (big foot) lizard” from Middle Jurassic Patagonia, southeast Argentina. The name comes from Spanish, patagon, “big foot”; a name given the Indians in Argentina. Named by Argentinian paleontologist José Bonaparte in 1979.

“ancestral lizard” from Late Cretaceous Europe. The name comes from Greek patrikos, “paternal, ancestral”. Named by Harry Govier Seeley in 1887.

“Paw Paw lizard” from Early Cretaceous eastern Texas. It was named for the eastern Texas Paw Paw rock Formation, Tarrant County, in which it was discovered in 1989 by twelve-year-old Johnny Maurice. Named by Lee in 1996.

“Pei-Shan (North Mountain) lizard” from Late Cretaceous northwest China. The Chinese name, bei, “north” plus shan, “mountain”. Named by Anders Birger Bohlin in 1953.

“Pekin lizard” from Late Triassic Pekin, North Carolina. Named by Adrian Paul Hunt and Frederic Augustus Lucas (1852-1929) in 1994.

“Lake Pellegrini lizard” from Late Cretaceous Patagonia, Argentina. It was named for Lago (Lake) Pellegrini, Rio Negro Province, northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. This fossil is said to be previously called Epachthosaurus. Named by Leonardo Salgado in 1996.

“Colossal (monstrous) lizard” from Early Cretaceous. It is known from very incomplete skeletons and fossilized skin impressions from the Wealden Formation in England and from a single forelimb bone found in Fervenca, Portugal. Pelorosaurus was named by British paleontologist Gideon A. Matheron Mantell (1790-1852) in 1850.

“Winged lizard” from Late Triassic Europe. Its name is said to come from Greek peteinos, “winged”. Named by Rupert Wild in 1978.

Meaning “gleaming-whole lizard” or “nimble dragon” from Early Cretaceous Sinkiang, northwest China. One source says that the name comes from Greek phaidros, “shining, joyful” plus Latin -olus; however, neither the Greek nor the Latin elements could be found in a large etymological dictionary. This fossil is considered nomen dubium, of “doubtful name”. Named by Chinese paleontologist Zhiming Dong in 1973.

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

“Phu Wiang lizard” from Early Cretaceous Thailand. It was named for Phu Wiang Teema, Amphoe Phu Wiang, Khon Kaen Province, northeastern Thailand. Named by Dr. Jim Martin (Museum of Geology, South Dakota), French paleontologist Erik Buffetaut, and Thai paleontologist Varavudh Suteethorn in 1994.

“Plant (eating) lizards” a taxon proposed to include prosauropods, sauropods, and ornithischians forming a group of herbivores.

“Plant lizard” from Late Triassic Europe. Named by Georg Friedrick von Jaeger in 1828.

“Piatnitzky’s lizard” from Late Jurassic southern Argentina. Named for Alejandro Mateievich Piatnitzky (1879-1959), a Russian-born Argentine geologist, who discovered the Jurassic Cerro Condor fossil locally in Chubut Province, Argentina in 1936. Named by Argentinian paleontologist José Bonaparte in 1979.