CLAOSAURUS
a hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America.
Pronunciation: KLAY-a-SOR-us
Meaning: Broken lizard
Author/s: Marsh (
1890)
Synonyms: See
below
First Discovery: Kansas, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #73
Claosaurus agilis
(Agile Broken Lizard)
Etymology
Claosaurus is derived from the Greek "klao" (broken) and "sauros" (lizard). The
species epithet,
agilis, means "agile" in Latin.
Hadrosaurus agilis (Marsh, 1872)
Thespesius agilis (Hay, 1902)
Trachodon agilis (Kuhn, 1936)
Discovery
The remains of
Claosaurus were discovered in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation, near Smoky Hill River, Logan County, western Kansas, USA, by O. C. Marsh in 1871. The
holotype (PM 1190) includes jaw fragments, a nearly complete
vertebral column, a right shoulder blade, both sternals, both
arms minus the hands, a right ilium (hip bone), both thighs, shin and calf fragments, and both feet.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Santonian-Campanian
Age range: 87-82 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Marsh OC (1872) "Notice on a new species of
Hadrosaurus".
American Journal of Science, 3(3): 301. [Hadrosaurus agilis.]
• Marsh OC (1890) "Additional characters of the Ceratopsidae, with notes of new Cretaceous dinosaurs".
American Journal of Science, (3)39: 418-425. [Claosaurus agilis]
• Carpenter K, Dilkes D and Weishampel DB (1995) "The Dinosaurs of the Niobrara Chalk Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Kansas)".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 15(2): 275–297. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1995.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
CLAOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/CLAOSAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
