Kingdom Animalia Clade Dinosauria Phylum Chordata Order Ornithischia | Class Reptilia Species †A. indicus Rank Genus | |
Similar Amargastegos, Alcovasaurus, Adelolophus, Amtocephale, Ahshislepelta | ||
Andhrasaurus (meaning "Andhra Pradesh lizard") is an dubious genus of extinct scelidosaurid ornithischian dinosaur. The type species is A. indicus, with the name derived from India, the country where the fossils were found. The type specimen, in the collections of the GSI, includes skull elements, about 30 osteoderms, and the extremities of vertebrae and limbs. When originally described, the authors mentioned the possibility that it was an ankylosaurian.
Contents
In 2016, Peter Malcolm Galton and Kenneth Carpenter declared it a nomen dubium, listing it as Thyreophora indet., and the jawbones as those of a crocodilian.
Description
Andhrasaurus was a small ornithischian, about 2.5–3 m (8.2–9.8 ft) long. The anterior portion of the skull is narrow, more similar to Scelidosaurus than Emausaurus. the maxilla of Andhrasaurus is very elongate, making the head long and low in profile. The lower jaws, found articulated, are thicker towards the back of the head than in Emausaurus or Scutellosaurus. The small teeth are compressed dorsally and packed together tightly, with denticles on both the front and back.
Classification
Andhrasaurus was first thought to be an ankylosaur by its original describers. They mentioned the fact that the teeth possess denticles on both edges as a purely ankylosaurian trait, although stegosaurians and scelidosaurids also possess them. Also, the skull lacked armouring, something that is found in ankylosaurians.