''Orosaurus'' ("mountain lizard") is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph from the Late Triassic of South Africa.

Classification

The holotype was discovered in 1863. It was first described by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1867 based on holotype NHMUK R1626, a proximal end of a left tibia (misidentified as a distal femur). However, Huxley declined to provide a species name. In his 1889 catalogue of fossil reptiles in the Natural History Museum in London, Richard Lydekker mistakenly considered ''Orosaurus'' preoccupied by the lizard genus '' Oreosaurus'' and coined ''Orinosaurus capensis'' for NHMUK R1626. Along with '' Euskelosaurus'', Lydekker considered ''Orosaurus'' (''Orinosaurus'' of his usage) to be an ornithischian dinosaur. von Huene (1940) treated ''Orosaurus'' as a species of ''Euskelosaurus'', as ''E. capensis''. van Heerden (1979) considered ''Orosaurus'' a synonym of ''Euskelosaurus''. However, Gauffre (1996) referred ''Orosaurus'' to his ''nomen ex dissertationae'' "Kholumolumosaurus" (now '' Kholumolumo'') along with '' Meroktenos'' and ''

Plateosauravus ''Plateosauravus'' ("grandfather of ''Plateosaurus''") is a basal plateosaurian of uncertain affinities from the Late Triassic Elliot Formation of South Africa. Sidney Haughton named ''Plateosaurus cullingworthi'' in 1924 from a partial skeleto ...

''. Meanwhile, ''Orosaurus'' was listed as a ''nomen dubium'' in the 2nd edition of '' The Dinosauria''.Galton, P.M & Upchurch, P. (2004). "Prosauropoda". In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, & H. Osmólska (eds.), '' The Dinosauria'' (second edition). ''University of California Press, Berkeley'': 232–258.

References

Sauropodomorphs Late Triassic dinosaurs of Africa Fossils of South Africa Fossil taxa described in 1867 Taxa named by Thomas Henry Huxley {{Sauropodomorph-stub