Teratosaurus

''Teratosaurus'' is a genus of rauisuchians known from the Triassic Stubensandstein ( Löwenstein Formation - Norian stage) of Germany. It is estimated to be 6.2 meters (20.35 ft) long.

Discovery

In 1860, Sixt Friedrich Jakob von Kapff at the ''Heslacher Wand'' near Stuttgart discovered the upper jaw bone of a large reptile. The type specimen, which Hermann von Meyer declared to be distinct from '' Belodon'', was described and named by the latter as the type species ''Teratosaurus suevicus''. The generic name is derived from Greek τέρας, ''teras'', " minous birth of amonster" and ''sauros'', "lizard". The specific name refers to Suevia. The holotype, specimen NHMUK PV OR 38646, was found in the Mittlerer Stubensandstein. It consists of a 245 millimetres long right maxilla with six large, up to five centimetres long, teeth, erroneously interpreted by Meyer as the left maxilla. It indicates a body length of about six metres.

Later authors, such as Kapff himself, von Huene, Osborn, and Edwin H. Colbert, incorrectly attributed postcrania of the sauropodomorph dinosaur ''Efraasia'' to this species or genus and, as a result, it was thought to be a representative of a presumed group of carnivorous Prosauropoda or, alternatively, a very primitive theropod. Following this lead, many popular books in the 20th century depicted "teratosaurs" as the earliest sort of large-bodied meat-eating dinosaur, walking on two legs and preying on the prosauropods of its day. It was thought by many to be a Triassic ancestor to the " carnosaurs" of the Jurassic. Sauropodomorph material was described as ''Teratosaurus'' species such as ''Teratosaurus minor'' (now ''Efraasia'') and ''Teratosaurus trossingensis''.

In 1985 and 1986, Peter Galton and Michael Benton independently showed that ''Teratosaurus'' is actually a rauisuchian, a type of non-dinosaurian large predatory archosaur, many of which walked on all fours, and lived alongside dinosaurs during the Late Triassic. Galton, P. M. (1985). "The poposaurid thecodontian ''Teratosaurus suevicus'' Meyer, plus referred specimens mostly based on prosauropod dinosaurs". ''Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde'', B, 116: 1-29. Benton, M.J. (1986). "The late Triassic reptile ''Teratosaurus'' - a rauisuchian, not a dinosaur". ''Palaeontology'' 29: 293-301.

Apart from the holotype and the sauropodomorph fossils, teeth probably belonging to various carnivorous archosaurs were named as ''Teratosaurus'' species. These included ''Teratosaurus lloydi'', a renaming of '' Cladeiodon lloydi'' (Owen 1841) by Huene in 1908, and ''Teratosaurus bengalensis''.H.C. Das-Gupta. 1928. "Batrachian and reptilian remains found in the Panchet Beds at Deoli, Bengal". ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series'' 14(13): 473-479 ''Teratosaurus silesiacus'', described in 2005 by Tomasz Sulej on the basis of a left maxilla,Sulej, T. (2005). "A new rauisuchian reptile (Diapsida: Archosauria) from the Late Triassic of Poland." ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'', 25(1):78-86. was transferred to the genus '' Polonosuchus'' by Brussatte ''et al.'' in 2009.

References

On the Classification of the Dinosauria with Observations on the Dinosauria of the Trias
- ''Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society'' (1870) Scientific Memoirs III

External links

Palaeos Mesozoic - Norian


by Ben Creisler

{{Taxonbar, from=Q133113

Rauisuchids
Late Triassic reptiles of Europe
Fossil taxa described in 1861
Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera