Outline: a typical early sauropodomorph
Glacialisaurus
"frozen lizard"
Type species Glacialisaurus hammeri
- Lived
- 200 to 184 million years ago, Early Jurassic
- Group
- Early sauropodomorphs, Massospondylidae
- Found in
- Antarctica
- Named by
- Smith and Pol 2007
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
190 million years ago
Field notes
About Glacialisaurus
What it was like
Glacialisaurus was an early relative of the giant sauropods, a plant eater with a long neck. It is known only from parts of a foot and a thigh bone. Its closest relatives include Massospondylus and Lufengosaurus.
Its world
It lived about 200 to 184 million years ago, in the Early Jurassic, in Antarctica. The land was much warmer then. Its bones come from the Hanson Formation, which also held the crested predator Cryolophosaurus.
How it was found
Smith and Pol named Glacialisaurus in 2007. The type species is Glacialisaurus hammeri.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Massospondylidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: N. D. Smith and D. Pol. 2007. Anatomy of a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Hanson Formation of Antarctica. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 52(4):657-674