Revueltosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Revueltosaurus"
fossil_range = Late Triassic
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
subclassis = Diapsida
unranked_ordo = Archosauria
unranked_familia = Crurotarsi
genus = "Revueltosaurus"
genus_authority = Hunt, 1989
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
* "R. callenderi" Hunt, 1989 (type)

"Revueltosaurus" ("Revuelto lizard") is a genus of prehistoric crurotarsan from Late Triassic New Mexico and Arizona. It was originally described as an ornithischian dinosaur based on several discoveries of teeth, but was reclassified when a partial skeleton was discovered in 2004. Since all but one Triassic ornithischians are known only from teeth and jaw fragments, the discovery has challenged their validity.

According to William Parker, who discovered the partial skeleton, "we have pretty much erased the record of Triassic ornithischian dinosaurs from North America, Europe and worldwide, except for South America."Quoted in Sanders 2005, para. 6.] His co-author Randall Irmis said, "because the teeth look like those we know from herbivorous ornithischians, people assigned them to the dinosaurs. We think we've shown that you can't rely on the dentition to determine what is an early dinosaur, which casts doubt on all the ornithischians from the Triassic of North America".Quoted in Sanders 2005, para. 4.]

Notes

References

* Hunt, A. P. 1989. A new ornithischian dinosaur from the Bull Canyon Formation (Upper Triassic) of east-central New Mexico. In Luca, S. G. and A. P. Hunt (Eds.), "Dawn of the age of dinosaurs in the American Southwest" 355–358.

* Parker, W. G., R. B. Irmis, S.N. Nesbitt, J. W. Martz, and L. S. Browne. 2005. The Pseudosuchian "Revueltosaurus callenderi" and its implications for the diversity of early ornithischian dinosaurs. In "Proceedings of the Royal Society London B" 272(1566):963–969. [http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~irmisr/revuelto.pdf Retrieved November 5, 2007] .

* Sanders, Robert. June 24, 2005. "Revueltosaurus" skeleton unearthed at Petrified Forest upsets dinosaur tale. "University of California Berkeley News". [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/06/24_revuelto.shtml Retrieved March 15, 2006] .