Psephosaurus

Psephosaurus had a carapace, or shell, made of many small, irregular bone plates called osteoderms. The big plates were separated by smaller pentagonal or hexagonal ones.2

Its name means 'pebble lizard' because its shell looked like a bunch of pebbles.1

Psephosaurus belonged to a group called placodonts, which were marine reptiles that often had crushing teeth for eating shellfish. But Psephosaurus may have been a filter feeder instead.11

The first fossils of Psephosaurus were found in Germany in the Hoheneck limestone, which was once an ancient estuary or bay.1

Psephosaurus lived during the Middle Triassic, about 243 to 237 million years ago, in the Longobardian age.11

Only one species of Psephosaurus is known: Psephosaurus suevicus. It was named by German paleontologist Eberhard Fraas in 1896.11