Anchisaurus

What it was like

Anchisaurus was a small, lightly built plant eater about 2 meters (7 feet) long. It belonged to the early relatives of the giant sauropods, but it was tiny by comparison, with a long neck, a small head and a long tail. Its hands carried a large thumb claw.

Its world

It lived about 201 to 193 million years ago, in the Early Jurassic, in what is now Connecticut and Massachusetts in the United States. Its bones come from the red sandstones of the Portland Formation, laid down in a rift valley with lakes and rivers.

How it was found

Marsh gave it the name Anchisaurus in 1885, after two earlier names turned out to be taken by other animals. The type species is Anchisaurus polyzelus. Bones of this kind were among the first dinosaur fossils found in North America, dug up long before the word dinosaur existed.