Nanosaurus
- Length
- 2.2 m (7.2 ft)
- Period
- Late Jurassic (155–148 Mya)
- Place
- North America · United States
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Nanosaurus (“small or dwarf lizard”) is an extinct genus of neornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic in North America. Its fossils are known from the Morrison Formation of the south-western United States. The type and only species, Nanosaurus agilis, was described and named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877. The taxon has a complicated taxonomic history, largely the work of Marsh and Peter M. Galton, involving the genera Laosaurus, Hallopus, Drinker, Othnielia, and Othnielosaurus, the latter three now being considered to be synonyms of Nanosaurus. It had historically been classified as a hypsilophodont or fabrosaur, types of generalized small bipedal herbivore, but more recent research has abandoned these groupings as paraphyletic and Nanosaurus is today considered a basal member of Neornithischia.
What we know
- Named by Marsh, 1877.
- Body length estimated at about 2.2 m.
- Fossils found in North America and United States.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Nanosaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.