Anchisauridae
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Anchisaurus Temporal range: Early Jurassic, 200–195 Ma |
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| Life restoration | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropodiformes |
| Clade: | †Anchisauria |
| Genus: |
†Anchisaurus Marsh, 1885 |
| Species: | †A. polyzelus |
| Binomial name | |
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Anchisaurus polyzelus (Hitchcock, 1865) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Anchisaurus is a type of early sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Early Jurassic Period, and its fossils have been found in the red sandstone of the Portland Formation, which was deposited from the Hettangian age into the Sinemurian age, between about 200 and 195 million years ago. Until recently it was classed as a member of Prosauropoda. The genus name Anchisaurus comes from the Greek αγχι/agkhi anchi-; "near, close" + Greek σαυρος/sauros; "lizard". Anchisaurus was coined as a replacement name for "Amphisaurus", which was itself a replacement name for Hitchcock's "Megadactylus", both of which had already been used for other animals.
Anchisaurus was a rather small dinosaur, with a length of just over 2 metres (6.6 ft), which helps explain why it was once mistaken for human bones. It probably weighed around 27 kilograms (60 lb). However, Marsh's species A. major (also known as Ammosaurus) was larger, from 2.5 to 4 metres (8 ft 2 in to 13 ft 1 in) and some estimates give it a weight of up to 70 pounds (32 kg). Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at 2.2 meters and its weight at 20 kg in 2010.
Sauropodomorph remains were first documented in North America in 1818, when some large bones were uncovered by Mr. Solomon Ellsworth, Jr. while with gunpowder excavating a well in East Windsor, Connecticut. At the time of their discovery it was thought that the bones might be those of a human, but the presence of tail vertebrae in 1821 falsified that idea. They are now recognized as those of an indeterminate sauropodomorph, possibly more closely related to the plateosaurian prosauropods.
In 1855, the original type specimen of Anchisaurus polyzelus, AM 41/109, which is housed at the Amherst College Museum of Natural History, was found by William Smith in Springfield, Massachusetts during blasting a well for the waterhouse at the Springfield Armory. Unfortunately, both the East Windsor and Springfield specimens were severely damaged due to the blasting at the construction sites where they were found, and many of the bones were either accidentally thrown away by the workmen or kept by interested onlookers. As a result, these dinosaurs were only known from incomplete remains.
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