Order Sphenodontia Subfamily Clevosaurinae Higher classification Sphenodontidae | Phylum Chordata Family Sphenodontidae Scientific name Clevosaurus Rank Genus | |
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Similar Rhynchocephalia, Brachyrhinodon, Gephyrosaurus, Planocephalosaurus, Reptile | ||
Clevosaurus (CLEE-vo-SORE-us) (Gloucester lizard) is an extinct genus of sphenodontian reptile from the Triassic and the Jurassic periods of Nova Scotia, Great Britain, (C. bairdi) and Yunnan (C. mcgilli). Clevosaurus was extremely similar to the modern tuatara in almost every way; the two genera differ in only certain features of the teeth and skull anatomies, as well as size. Clevosaurus was smaller than the modern tuatara. Clevosaurus possibly ate plants as well as insects, as suggested by the form of the teeth. Fossils of Clevosaurus, as well as other sphenodontians, early mammals and dinosaurs have been found in ancient cave systems of Great Britain. Clevosaurus is now believed to have had Pangaean distribution.
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A new find
Some fossils from South America (into Geopark Paleorrota) found in 2006 represent a new species of Clevosaurus (C. brasiliensis). A new species has been named Clevosaurus sectumsempra after the spell from Harry Potter.
Species
Below is a cladogram of the relationships within Clevosauridae based on the phylogenetic analysis of Hsiou et al. (2015):
"Clevosaurus" latidens was recovered outside of Clevosauridae, as the sister taxon of Opisthodontia.
