Fabrosaurus

Fabrosaurus (/ˌfæbrəˈsɔːrəs/[1] FAB-ro-SAWR-əs; meaning "Fabre's lizard" in honor of Jean Fabre, a French geologist and a colleague of Ginsburg on the expedition that collected the fossil in Basutoland, (now Lesotho); Greek sauros "lizard")) was a genus of herbivorous dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic (c.190 mya).[2] It was originally placed within the now obsolete family Fabrosauridae (now considered basal Ornithischia). Fabrosaurus was named by paleontologist Leonard Ginsburg in 1964 based on partial jawbone with three teeth.[2] The type species, Fabrosaurus australis, was named for the location of the fossils in the Elliot Formation, Lesotho, Southern Africa (australis being Latin for "southern"; not referring to Australia).

Fabrosaurus
Temporal range: Early Jurassic, 190 Ma
↓
Mandible
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Genus: †Fabrosaurus
Ginsburg, 1964
Type species
†Fabrosaurus australis
Ginsburg, 1964
Synonyms
  • Fabrosauridae Galton, 1972

Discovery, naming and taxonomy

The holotype, a partial jaw and three teeth, was discovered in Lesotho and was named and described by Leonard Ginsburg in 1964.[2] Subsequent discoveries, now classed under the genus Lesothosaurus, included two crushed skulls and disarticulated post-cranial bones (including vertebrae, ribs, and limb bones), allowing for a more complete reconstruction.[3][4] However, as additional ornithischian fossils were discovered, the features of F. australis were thought to be shared by other species, and by the 1990s and 2000s most authors working with the group found Fabrosaurus to be a nomen dubium (doubtful name), finding the holotype material described by Ginsburg to be insufficient to distinguish a new taxon. Some claim the fossils represent simple variation of Lesothosaurus, which is regarded as valid.[5]


References
  1. "Fabrosaurus". Oxford Dictionaries UK Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
  2. Ginsburg, L., 1964, "Decouverte d’un Scelidosaurien (Dinosaure ornithischien) dans le Trias superieur du Basutoland", Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris, 258; 2366–2368.
  3. Thulborn, R. A. (1970). The skull of Fabrosaurus australis, a Triassic ornithischian dinosaur. Palaeontology, 13(3), 414-432.
  4. Thulborn, R. A. (1972). The post-cranial skeleton of the Triassic ornithischian dinosaur Fabrosaurus australis. Palaeontology, 15(1), 29-60.
  5. Butler, Richard J. (March 2005). "The 'fabrosaurid' ornithischian dinosaurs of the Upper Elliot Formation (Lower Jurassic) of South Africa and Lesotho" (PDF). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 145 (2): 175–218. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00182.x.


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