Lesothosaurus

Lesothosaurus is a monospecific genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic in what is now South Africa and Lesotho. It was named by paleontologist Peter Galton in 1978, the name meaning "lizard from Lesotho". The genus has only one valid species, Lesothosaurus diagnosticus. Lesothosaurus is one of the most completely-known early ornithischians, based on numerous skull and postcranial fossils from the Upper Elliot Formation. It had a simpler tooth and jaw anatomy than later ornithischians, and may have been omnivorous in some parts of the year. Fossils referrable to Lesothosaurus may have been known from as early as 1959, when a right dentary (lower jawbone) fragment bearing three teeth was collected by French geologist Jean Fabre from the Red Beds of the Upper Elliot Formation near Mapheteng in Lesotho, Southern Africa, dating to the Early Jurassic (199(?)-190 million years ago). The dentary was described as the holotype of a new genus and species, Fabrosaurus australis, by paleontologist Leonard Ginsburg in 1964. Ginsburg placed it in the family Scelidosauridae and diagnosed it based on its unusual tooth morphology when compared to the only other contemporary ornithischian Heterodontosaurus. Due to its fragmentary nature, Fabrosaurus is now seen as a nomen dubium, though the holotype is likely from an individual of Lesothosaurus. The holotype was all that was known until expeditions by the London University College to the same site in Lesotho from 1963 to 1964 recovered scores of fossils from Lesothosaurus, including a partial skeleton including a skull and another isolated partial skull (NHMUK PV RU B17 & NHMUK PV RU B23). These specimens were described in the 1970s as belonging to Fabrosaurus by geologist Richard A. Thulborn. A joint expedition between the NHMUK, London University College, Yale University, and the South African Museum collected many additional specimens of Lesothosaurus from the same site in 1967-68. This included very well preserved cranial material, some of the best known, that was described in the 1991.

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Related concepts (7)

Heterodontosauridae

Heterodontosauridae is a family of ornithischian dinosaurs that were likely among the most basal (primitive) members of the group. Their phylogenetic placement is uncertain but they are most commonly found to be primitive, outside of the group Genasauria. Although their fossils are relatively rare and their group small in numbers, they have been found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica, with a range spanning the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.

Pisanosaurus

Pisanosaurus (pIsæn@'sɔːr@s) is an extinct genus of early dinosauriform, likely an ornithischian or silesaurid, from the Late Triassic of Argentina. It was a small, lightly built, ground-dwelling herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated long. Only one species, the type, Pisanosaurus mertii, is known, based on a single partial skeleton discovered in the Ischigualasto Formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwestern Argentina. This part of the formation has been dated to the late Carnian, approximately 229 million years ago.

Genasauria

Genasauria is a clade of extinct beaked, primarily herbivorous dinosaurs. Paleontologist Paul Sereno first named Genasauria in 1986. The name Genasauria is derived from the Latin word gena meaning ‘cheek’ and the Greek word saúra (σαύρα) meaning ‘lizard.’ It is hypothesized that Genasauria had diverged from Lesothosaurus by the Early Jurassic. Cranial features that characterize Genasauria include a medial offset of the maxillary dentition, a sprout-shaped mandibular symphysis, moderately sized coronoid process, and an edentulous (without teeth) anterior portion of the premaxilla.