Camposaurus
Name:
Camposaurus
(Camp’s lizard).
Phonetic: Camp-o-sor-us.
Named By: A. P. Hunt, S. G. Lucas, A.
B. Heckert, R. M. Sullivan & M. G. Lockley -
1998.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Coelophysidae, Coelophysinae.
Species: C. arizonensis
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of fossils.
Known locations: USA, Arizona.
Time period: Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Leg Bones.
Camposaurus
is very similar in appearance to the far more famous Coelophysis,
so
much so in fact that for just over ten years after the genus was named
there was a lot of speclation that the genus was probably synonymous
with Coelophysis. This speculation ended in
2011 however after a
study by Martin Ezcurra and Stephen Brusatte clearly identified
autapomorphies in the leg which are not seen in Coelophysis.
The
conclusion is that while Camposaurus is
superficially similar to
Coelophysis, it is still different enough to be a
distinct genus.
Camposaurus is also regarded as one of if not
‘the’ oldest
neotheropod dinosaurs, the sub group of the Theropoda that would go
on to develop all of the more advanced theropod dinosaurs.
Camposaurus
would have been a small lightweight predator that probably focused
upon hunting smaller animals such as lizards as well as possible
juveniles of other dinosaurs. Due to the small size however,
Camposaurus would have had to stay out of the way
of potentially
other larger dinosaurian predators, and most certainly out of the way
of large rauisuchians
such as Postosuchus
that were hunting in the same
locations and at the same approximate time as Camposaurus.
Further reading
- Late Triassic dinosaurs from the western United States. -
Géobios 31(4):511-531. - A. P. Hunt, S. G. Lucas,
A. B. Heckert, R. M. Sullivan & M. G. Lockley
- 1998.
- Taxonomic and phylogenetic reassessment of the early neotheropod
dinosaur Camposaurus arizonensis from the Late
Triassic of North
America. - Palaeontology 54 (4) pp 763-772. - Martin
Ezcurra & Stephen L. Brusatte - 2011.
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