Lewisuchus
Lewisuchus was a small, early dinosaur relative that lived around 236 million years ago. It walked on two legs and had a beak, which it used to eat plants. This reptile is one of the closest known relatives of true dinosaurs.13
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Fun facts
Lewisuchus had a row of bony plates called osteoderms along its back, which may have helped protect it.1
Its full scientific name is Lewisuchus admixtus, and 'admixtus' means 'mixed', because its skeleton was found mixed with bones of other animals.1
Scientists once called it Pseudolagosuchus, but later realized those fossils came from the same type of animal.13
The first skeleton was discovered inside a hard rock nodule in Argentina during a 1964 to 1965 expedition.1
It was about 1 meter (3.3 feet) long, about the size of a large dog.1
Most asked questions about Lewisuchus
?Is Lewisuchus a dinosaur?
No, it is not a dinosaur. It is a silesaurid dinosauriform, one of the closest relatives of dinosaurs.1
?Where was Lewisuchus found?
In the Chañares Formation of Argentina.1
?How did Lewisuchus get its name?
It means 'Lewis's crocodile'. The name honors Arnold Lewis, who discovered the skeleton, and references the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think Lewisuchus was a true dinosaur.
Truth: Scientists now place Lewisuchus in the group Silesauridae, which are close relatives of dinosaurs but not necessarily true dinosaurs themselves.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Lewisuchus
- Named by
- Romer 19723
- Group
- Beaked plant-eaters
- Family / clade
- Silesauridae3
- Classification
- Ornithischia3
- Age of the rocks
- 241 to 234 million years (Ladinian / Carnian)3
- Rock formations
- Chañares3
- Countries
- Argentina3
- Fossil records
- 4 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Also known as
- Pseudolagosuchus (older names now counted as the same animal)3
- Discovery
- Alfred Romer named Lewisuchus in 1972, based on a partial skeleton found in the Chañares Formation of Argentina. The holotype specimen is stored at the Museo de La Plata and later moved to the National University of La Rioja.13
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether Lewisuchus should be classified as a true dinosaur or as a close dinosaur relative.1
Where the facts come from
- Lewisuchus (en.wikipedia.org)
- New Specimen Sheds Light on the Anatomy and Taxonomy of the Early Late Triassic Dinosauriforms from the Chañares Formation, NW Argentina (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- Lewisuchus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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