Halticosaurus
Name:
Halticosaurus
(Nimble lizard).
Phonetic: Hal-te-co-sore-us.
Named By: Friedrich von Huene - 1908.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Theropoda, Halticosauridae.
Species: H. longotarsus (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Roughly estimated to be about 5.5 meters long.
Known locations: Germany - Stubensandstein.
Time period: Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial jaw and post cranial
remains.
Since
its creation Halticosaurus has had a lot of fossil
remains attributed
to it but most of these have been reassigned to other genera. Best
known of these is the creation of a new species called H.
liliensterni which ended up being raised as the genus Liliensternus
in 1984. Other theropod dinosaur remains that were attributed to
Halticosaurus were also transferred to Liliensternus
in 1993, but
they were actually raised as a new genus as well, Lophostropheus.
On top of this, another previously assigned species of
Halticosaurus, H. orbitoangulatus,
has now been found to be
described from the remains of a crocodylomorph, a very different kind
of reptile.
With
most of the attributed fossil material now reassigned not much is known
about Halticosaurus, especially when you consider
that most of the
early descriptions of this dinosaur were based upon the fossil material
now attributed to Liliensternus. The only safe
things that can be
said about Halticosaurus is that it was a lightly
built theropod
dinosaur that shared its European habitat with similar theropods,
primitive sauropodomorph dinosaurs while primitive pterosaurs
like
Eudimorphodon
were already controlling the skies.
Further reading
- Die Dinosaurier der Europ�ischen Triasformation mit ber�cksichtigung
der Ausseurop�ischen vorkommnisse [The dinosaurs of the European
Triassic formations with consideration of occurrences outside Europe].
- Geologische und Palaeontologische Abhandlungen Suppl. 1(1):1-419. -
F. von Huene - 1908.
- Reassessment of cf. Halticosaurus orbitoangulatus from the Upper
Triassic (Norian) of Germany - a pseudosuchian, not a dinosaur. -
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 168 (4): 859. - H. D. Sues
& R. R. Schoch - 2013.
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