Teratosaurus (gr. will teras “monster” + sauros “lizard”) was a kind of rauisuchien of triassic Stubensandstein (Formation of Löwenstein - age norien) in Germany. The standard specimen was described by von Meyer on the basis of left maxilla (bone of the upper jaw) provided with large teeth, and he declared it distinct from Belodon.

Authors, like von Huene, Osborn and Edwin H. Colbert, incorrectly allotted to this species postcrania of Efraasia, a Dinosaure sauropodomorphe, and consequently it was thought that it was about a very primitive théropode. This is why much of books of popularization of the 20th century represented Teratosarus like one of the first kinds of carnivorous dinosaurs to the massive body, going on two legs and making hunting for the Prosauropode S of their time. Many saw in him an ancestor living with Sorted carnosaures of the Jurassic one.

In 1985 and 1986 Peter Galton and Michael Benton showed independently one of the other that Teratosaurus is in fact a rauisuchien non-dinosaurien, a kind of large predator Archosaure which lived parallel to the dinosaurs during Sorted higher.

References

• One the Classification off the Dinosauria with Observations one the Dinosauria off the Sorted - Quarterly Journal off the Geological Society (1870) Scientific Memoirs III
• Michael Benton|Benton, M.J. 1986. The late Triassic Teratosaurus reptile - has rauisuchian, not has dinosaur. Paleontology (newspaper)|Paleontology 29:293 - 301.
• Peter Galton|Galton, TOKEN ENTRY, 1985, The poposaurid thecodontian Teratosaurus suevicus von Meyer. Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde , B, v. 116, p. 1-29.

External bonds

• Palaeos Mesozoic - Norian
• Rauisuchia Translation and Pronunciation Guides by Ben Creisler