Lucianosaurus

Lucianosaurus
Temporal range: Late Triassic,
228–208.5 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Reptiliomorpha
Clade: Amniota
Genus: †Lucianosaurus
Hunt & Lucas, 1994
Type species
†Lucianosaurus wildi
Hunt & Lucas, 1994

Lucianosaurus is an extinct genus of amniote of unknown affinities, known only from teeth. Initially described as a basal ornithischian dinosaur, subsequently reclassified as a member of the clade Archosauriformes of uncertain phylogenetic placement[1] and later, taking into account the similarity of its teeth to the teeth of traversodontid cynodonts such as Dadadon (shared presence of teeth with sub-triangular crowns, enlarged denticles, and thecodont tooth implantation), as an amniote of uncertain affinities (though based on dissimilarities in gross morphology and geographic separation it is still more likely that the taxon is indeed an archosauriform rather than a traversodontid).[2]

Fossil remains of Lucianosaurus were first found in the Late Triassic Dockum Group of Eastern New Mexico, United States.[3] The generic name refers to Luciano Mesa (34°58′48″N 104°09′00″W / 34.980121°N 104.150048°W / 34.980121; -104.150048) in Guadalupe and Quay counties of New Mexico where the teeth of Lucianosaurus were first uncovered and identified.[4]

  1. ^ Irmis, R.B., Parker, W.G., Nesbitt, S.J., and Liu, J. (2006). Early ornithischian dinosaurs: the Triassic record. Historical Biology 19(1):3-22. doi:10.1080/08912960600719988
  2. ^ Christian F. Kammerer; John J. Flynn; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana; André R. Wyss (2012). "Ontogeny in the Malagasy Traversodontid Dadadon isaloi and a Reconsideration of its Phylogenetic Relationships". Fieldiana Life and Earth Sciences. 5: 112–125. doi:10.3158/2158-5520-5.1.112. S2CID 84651546.
  3. ^ Hunt, A.P. and Lucas, S.G. (1994). Ornithischian dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic of the United States. In: Fraser, N.C. and Sues, H.-D. (eds), In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods. Cambridge University Press, pp. 227-241.
  4. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Luciano Mesa