Laosaurus
Name: Laosaurus
(Fossil lizard).
Phonetic: Lay-oh-sore-us.
Named By: Othniel Charles Marsh - 1878.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hypsilophodontidae.
Species: L. celer (type), L. gracilis, L.
minimus.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Morrision
Formation. Canada, Alberta.
Time period: Oxfordian/Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Very partial and fragmentary
remains.
Laosaurus is today considered to be a dubious genus of dinosaur. Though previously considered to be a hypsilophodont (relative of Hypsilophodon), most of the fossil remains once attributed to Laosaurus have ended up being considered to be other genera such as Orodromeus, Dryosaurus and Othnielosaurus. What few fossils that are still assigned to Laosaurus, are often seen as being too indeterminate to base a genus upon, and may well in themselves be examples of other dinosaur genera.
Further reading
- Osteology of ornithopodous dinosaurs from the Dinosaur National
Monument, Utah. -Memoir of the Carnegie Museum 10: 385–409.
- Charles W. Gilmore - 1925.
- The relationships of the Alberta Cretaceous dinosaur ‘Laosaurus
minimus’ Gilmore. - Journal of Paleontology 23
(5):
518–520. - Loris S. Russel - 1949.
- The ornithopod dinosaur Dryosaurus and a
Laurasia-Gondwanaland
connection in the Upper Jurassic. - Nature 268 (5617):
230–232. - Peter M. Galton - 1977.
- Teeth of ornithischian dinosaurs (mostly Ornithopoda) from the
Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of the western United States
- Peter M. Galton - In, Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and
Ornithopod Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press: Bloomington -
Kenneth Carpenter (ed) - 2007.
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