''Craterosaurus'' (meaning ''

krater A krater or crater ( grc-gre, , ''kratēr'', literally "mixing vessel") was a large two-handled shape of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, krat ...

reptile'' or ''bowl reptile'') was a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of stegosaurid

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

. It lived during the Early Cretaceous ( Aptian to

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

stages) around 121-113

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago) ...

. Its fossils were found in the

Woburn Sands Formation The Woburn Sands Formation is a geological formation in England. Part of the Lower Greensand Group, it is the only unit of the group where it occurs, and thus is sometimes simply referred to as the 'Lower Greensand' in these areas. It was deposit ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. ''Craterosaurus'' may actually be a junior synonym of ''

Regnosaurus ''Regnosaurus'' (meaning "Sussex lizard") is a genus of herbivorous stegosaurian dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period in what is now England. It was one of the first stegosaurs disvovered. Discovery and species The fossil re ...

'', but only one fossil, a partial

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

, was recovered. The type (and only known) species is ''Craterosaurus pottonensis'', described in 1874 by

Harry Seeley Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist. Early life Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fat ...

. The specific name refers to the ''Potton bonebed''. Seeley mistook the fossil,

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

SMC B.28814, for the base of a cranium.

Franz Nopcsa Franz may refer to: People * Franz (given name) * Franz (surname) Places * Franz (crater), a lunar crater * Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada * Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see ...

in 1912 correctly identified it as the front part of a

neural arch The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

.Nopcsa, F., 1912, "Notes on British dinosaurs. Pt. IV. ''Craterosaurus'' (Seeley)", ''Geological Magazine'', (ser. 5), 9: 481-484 ''Craterosaurus'' was placed in Stegosauria by

Galton Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto- ...

, although subsequent authors did not recognize ''Craterosaurus'' as a distinct, valid taxon. Craterosaurus size comparison

References

Stegosaurs Barremian life Valanginian life Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Cretaceous United Kingdom Fossils of England Fossil taxa described in 1874 Taxa named by Harry Seeley Nomina dubia Ornithischian genera {{stegosaur-stub

See also

References