Scutosaurus

Not to be confused with Scutellosaurus.

Scutosaurus
Temporal range: Lopingian
~259.1–251.9 Ma
Skeleton of Scutosaurus at the American Museum of Natural History with upright posture
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: †Parareptilia
Order: †Procolophonomorpha
Clade: †Pareiasauria
Genus: †Scutosaurus
Hartmann-Weinberg, 1930
Species:
†S. karpinskii
Binomial name
†Scutosaurus karpinskii
(Amalitskii, 1922)
Synonyms[1]
List
    • Pariasaurus karpinskyi
      (Watson, 1917)
    • Pareiosaurus karpinskii
      (Amalitskii, 1922)
    • Pareiosaurus elegans
      (Amalitskii, 1922)
    • Pareiosaurus tuberculatus
      (Amalitskii, 1922)
    • Pareiosaurus horridus
      (Amalitskii, 1922)
    • Pareiosaurus karpinskyi
      (Hartmann-Weinberg, 1929)
    • Scutosaurus karpinskyi
      (Hartmann-Weinberg, 1930)
    • Proelginia permiana
      (Hartmann-Weinberg, 1937)
    • Scutosaurus permiana
      (Efremov, 1940)
    • Scutosaurus permicus
      (Kuhn, 1969)
    • Scutosaurus tuberculatus
      (Ivakhnenko, 1987)
    • Scutosaurus permianus
      (Ivakhnenko, 1987)
    • Scutosaurus itilensis
      (Ivakhnenko, 1987)

Scutosaurus ("shield lizard") is an extinct genus of pareiasaur parareptiles. Its genus name refers to large plates of armor scattered across its body. It was a large anapsid reptile that, unlike most reptiles, held its legs underneath its body to support its great weight.[2] Fossils have been found in the Sokolki Assemblage Zone of the Malokinelskaya Formation in European Russia, close to the Ural Mountains, dating to the late Permian (Lopingian) between 264 and 252 million years ago.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lee2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 64. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.