Technosaurus

Name: Technosaurus ‭(‬Tech lizard‭ ‬-‭ ‬after Texas Tech‭)‬.
Phonetic: Tek-noe-sore-us.
Named By: Sankar Chatterjee‭ ‬-‭ ‬1984.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Archosauromorpha,‭ ‬Dinosauriformes‭?
Species: T.‭ ‬smalli‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Unknown.
Size: Unknown due to lack of identifiable remains.
Known locations: USA,‭ ‬Texas‭ ‬-‭ ‬Bull Canyon Formation.
Time period: Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Premaxilla and lower jaw fragment‭?

       Technosaurus is in simple terms a mess.‭ ‬Described in‭ ‬1984‭ ‬by Sankar Chatterjee from an astralgus‭ (‬ankle bone‭)‬,‭ ‬a dorsal‭ (‬back‭) ‬vertebrae,‭ ‬two lower jaws and a premaxilla,‭ ‬Techonosaurus was heralded as the earliest ornithischian‭ (‬bird hipped‭) ‬dinosaur of the time.‭ ‬Then in‭ ‬1991another palaeontologist named Paul Sereno re-examined the fossils,‭ ‬a study that would be the beginning of the doubt in the validity of Technosaurus being the earliest known ornithischian dinosaur.‭
       First Sereno found that both the vertebrae and astralgus were unidentifiable,‭ ‬and thus could not be used to define the genus.‭ ‬Sereno was also of the opinion that the premaxilla and one of the jaws belonged to a‭ ‬hatchling prosauropod,‭ ‬a kind of saurischian‭ (‬lizard hipped‭) ‬dinosaur.‭ ‬A‭ ‬2007‭ ‬review by Irmis et al took things even further.‭ ‬It was agreed that the vertebra and astralgus should be removed from the genus,‭ ‬but‭ ‬the reviewers also found no characteristics in the skull and jaw material that could definitely identify them as being dinosaurian.‭ ‬Instead the new review considered the remains to be similar to another archosaur called Shuvosaurus,‭ ‬in fact one of the jaw fragments was considered to actually be from a Shuvosaurus.
       Currently Technosaurus only has a premaxilla and a jaw fragment assigned to the genus.‭ ‬Although sometimes tentatively assigned to the dinosauriformes,‭ ‬Technosaurus is now often just described as an indeterminate archosaur.‭ ‬Despite this,‭ ‬Technosaurus has been noted as sharing some similarities with another archosaur called Silesaurus.




Further reading
-‭ ‬A new ornithischian dinosaur from the Triassic of North America,‭ ‬Sankar Chatterjee‭ ‬-‭ ‬1984.
-‭ ‬Lesothosaurus,‭ "‬fabrosaurids‭"‬,‭ ‬and the early evolution of Ornithischia,‭ ‬Paul C.‭ ‬Sereno‭ ‬-‭ ‬1991.
-‭ ‬A critical re-evaluation of the Late Triassic dinosaur taxa of North America,‭ ‬Sterling J.‭ ‬Nesbitt,‭ ‬Randall B.‭ ‬Irmis,‭ & ‬William G.‭ ‬Parker‭ ‬-‭ ‬2007.
-‭ ‬Early ornithischian dinosaurs:‭ ‬the Triassic record,‭ ‬Sterling J.‭ ‬Nesbitt,‭ ‬Randall B.‭ ‬Irmis,‭ ‬William G.‭ ‬Parker‭ & ‬Jun Lin‭ ‬-‭ ‬2007.





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