Connecticut (United States, North America) 200 million years ago...
NUMBER FORTY-TWO: Where
@ThylacineAlive now lives, this dinosaur once walked.
- Animal: Anchisaurus polyzelus
- Name Pronunciation: An-chee-sore-us poly-zell-us
- Name Meaning: "Near lizard that is much coveted"
- Named By: Edward Hitchcock Jr. - 1865
- Classification: Life, Eukaryota, Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Gnathostomata, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Tetrapodomorpha, Tetrapoda, Reptiliomorpha, Amniota, Sauropsida, Eureptilia, Sauria, Archosauromorpha, Archosauriformes, Archosauria, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropodiformes, Anchisauria
- When: ~ 200,000,000 B.C.E. to 195,000,000 B.C.E. (Early Jurassic Epoch)
- Where: North America (United States (Connecticut (Portland Formation)))
- Size: 13 feet (3.96 meters) long
- Diet: Herbivore
Anchisaurus polyzelus had to be given a name not once, not twice, but three times. The first North American sauropodomorph remains were first documented in 1818, when some bones were uncovered by Mr. Solomon Ellsworth Jr. while excavating a well with gunpowder in East Windsor, Connecticut. Initially it was thought that the bones might be those of a human, but the presence of tail vertebrae falsified that idea. They were then recognized as those of an indeterminate sauropodomorph. In 1865, Edward Hitchcock Jr. named the species
Megadactylus (Mega-dack-till-us)
polyzelus. In 1877, Professor Othniel Charles Marsh had noted that the name
Megadactylus had been preoccupied by
Megadactylus (Fitzinger - 1843), a subgenus of the lizard genus
Stellio. In 1882, he replaced the name with
Amphisaurus (Am-fee-sore-us). However in 1885, Marsh had discovered that this name also had also been preoccupied, by the anthracosaurian amphibian
Amphisaurus (Barkas - 1870), and again replaced it, finally giving us
Anchisaurus. It is currently believed
Anchisaurus could of freely switched between being a biped and a quadruped, likely running bipedally when evading threats but normally walking quadrupedally. The blunt teeth and design of the jaws have been interpreted as clear signs that
Anchisaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur. Additionally the body is shaped to allow for an increased gut area for the digestion of plant matter. However, some paleontologists have speculated that
Anchisaurus may have eaten meat since the eyes still face partially forward rather than to the sides like most plant-eating animals. Plus its claws were rather large for a herbivore of its size. However, as we know that dinosaurs like
Anchisaurus were descended from meat-eating ancestors, it is reasonable to speculate that the partially carnivorous/predatory features present in
Anchisaurus may simply be relict features that had yet to evolve out.
Anchisaurus is one of two dinosaurs known from Connecticut's Portland Formation. The other species was the small meat-eating theropod
Podokesaurus holyokensis (Poe-doe-key-sore-us holy-yok-en-sis), which may have preyed on baby
Anchisaurus.
(Below:
Podokesaurus vs. a baby
Anchisaurus)
Picture and Information Sources:
If anyone else wants to see what once lived where they currently live comment below.
So far on the itinerary we have: Souss-Massa for
@Zoo Tycooner FR, Chicago for
@SpinyLiving, Wisconsin for
@birdsandbats, and Flanders for
@KevinB
