Outline: a typical early ornithischian
Asilisaurus
ah-SEE-lee-SORE-us
"ancestor lizard"
- Lived
- 247 to 242 million years ago, Middle Triassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Early ornithischians, Silesauridae
- Found in
- Tanzania
- Named by
- Nesbitt et al. 2010
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
245 million years ago
Field notes
About Asilisaurus
What it was like
Asilisaurus was a slender four-legged animal about the size of a large dog. It belonged to the silesaurids, close cousins of dinosaurs or perhaps the earliest ornithischians. Its jaws had a toothless tip, and it probably ate plants.
Its world
It lived in the Middle Triassic, in what is now Tanzania. It comes from the Manda Beds, where the possible early dinosaur Nyasasaurus has also been found. It shows that the dinosaur line had already split into several branches this early.
How it was found
Nesbitt and colleagues named Asilisaurus in 2010, from bones of several animals. Its name comes from a local word for ancestor.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Silesauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: S. J. Nesbitt, C. A. Sidor, and R. B. Irmis, K. D. Angielczyk, R. M. H. Smith, L. A. Tsuji. 2010. Ecologically distinct dinosaurian sister group shows early diversification of Ornithodira. Nature 464:95-98