Asylosaurus

Name: Asylosaurus ‭(‬Unharmed/sanctuary lizard‭)‬.
Phonetic: A-sil-o-sore-us.
Named By: Peter Galton‭ ‬-‭ ‬2007.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Saurischia,‭ ‬Sauropodomorpha.
Species: A.‭ ‬yalensis‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains.
Known locations: England.
Time period: Rhaetian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: ‭(‬Holotype YPM‭ ‬2195‭) ‬Partial anterior portion of the skeleton.

       The holotype remains of Asylosaurus were originally attributed to the genus Thecodontosaurus,‭ ‬but a review by Peter Galton saw these remains established as a new genus.‭ ‬The genus names means‭ ‘‬unharmed/sanctuary lizard‭’ ‬and this is a reference as to how this set of remains were shipped from England to the United States by Othniel Charles Marsh in the late nineteenth century.‭ ‬Had they have stayed with the other Thecodontosaurus fossils in England,‭ ‬they would have been destroyed in World War Two when the portion of the museum they were being stored was bombed.
       Asylosaurus is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur,‭ ‬the forerunners to the more advanced sauropods that would become common during the Jurassic.‭ ‬The Asylosaurus genus may have encountered and lived alongside the other sauropodomorph genera Thecodontosaurus and Pantydraco.

Further reading
-‭ ‬Notes on the remains of archosaurian reptiles,‭ ‬mostly basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs,‭ ‬from the‭ ‬1834‭ ‬fissure fill‭ (‬Rhaetian,‭ ‬Upper Triassic‭) ‬at Clifton in Bristol,‭ ‬southwest England,‭ ‬Peter Galton‭ ‬-‭ ‬2007.



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