Outline: a typical early dinosaur
Daemonosaurus
"evil spirit lizard"
Type species Daemonosaurus chauliodus
- Lived
- 206 to 201 million years ago, Late Triassic
- Group
- Early dinosaurs
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Sues et al. 2011
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
200 million years ago
Field notes
About Daemonosaurus
What it was like
Daemonosaurus was a small, early dinosaur with a short head and big, forward-pointing front teeth like buck teeth. It is known only from a skull and a few neck bones, so the rest of its body is unknown. It was probably a predator of small animals.
Its world
It lived near the end of the Triassic, in what is now New Mexico. It comes from the Chinle Formation, where it lived beside the slender early theropod Coelophysis.
How it was found
Sues and colleagues named Daemonosaurus in 2011. The type species is Daemonosaurus chauliodus, which refers to its buck teeth. It shows that some early dinosaur lines survived alongside newer groups late into the Triassic.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Saurischia
Sources: WikidataNamed in: H.-D. Sues, S. J. Nesbitt, and D. S. Berman, A. C. Henrici. 2011. A late-surviving basal theropod dinosaur from the latest Triassic of North America. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278:3459-3464