Daemonosaurus

Daemonosaurus
Temporal range: Rhaetian?
Cast of the skull, displayed at the Ruth Hall Museum at Ghost Ranch
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Genus: Daemonosaurus
Sues et al. 2011
Species:
D. chauliodus
Binomial name
Daemonosaurus chauliodus
Sues et al. 2011

Daemonosaurus is an extinct genus of possible theropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic of New Mexico. The only known fossil is a skull and neck fragments from deposits of the latest Triassic Chinle Formation at Ghost Ranch. Daemonosaurus was an unusual dinosaur with a short skull and large, fang-like teeth. It lived alongside early neotheropods such as Coelophysis, which would have been among the most common dinosaurs by the end of the Triassic. However, Daemonosaurus retains several plesiomorphic ("primitive") traits of the snout, and it likely lies outside the clade Neotheropoda. It may be considered a late-surviving basal theropod or non-theropod basal saurischian, possibly allied to other early predatory dinosaurs such as herrerasaurids or Tawa.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Hans-Dieter Sues; Sterling J. Nesbitt; David S. Berman & Amy C. Henrici (2011). "A late-surviving basal theropod dinosaur from the latest Triassic of North America". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 278 (1723): 3459–3464. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0410. PMC 3177637. PMID 21490016.
  2. ^ Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Sues, Hans-Dieter (3 August 2020). "The osteology of the early-diverging dinosaur Daemonosaurus chauliodus (Archosauria: Dinosauria) from the Coelophysis Quarry (Triassic: Rhaetian) of New Mexico and its relationships to other early dinosaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 191: 150–179. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa080.
  3. ^ Choi, C.Q. (12 April 2011). "T. Rex had a toothy ancestor that couldn't cut it". Live Science. Retrieved 12 April 2011.