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DYSALOTOSAURUS

a dryosaurid ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania.
Pronunciation: dis-a-LOHT-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Uncatchable lizard
Author/s: Hans Virchow (1919)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Lindi, Tanzania
Discovery Chart Position: #123
(Lettow-Vorbeck's uncatchable lizard)Etymology
Dysalotosaurus is derived from the Greek "dysalotos" (difficult to be captured) and "sauros" (lizard), named, presumably, for its light, nimble build.
The species epithet, lettowvorbecki, honours Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of German forces in Tanzania.
Lettow-Vorbeck was a slippery customer himself, and led the British and Belgian armies a merry-dance as they persued him after the outbreak of WWI. He also had an irritating habit of disobeying direct orders from Berlin HQ! He led one of only two German colonial forces that remained undefeated, though by the time he was informed of an armistice by Hector Croad in 1918, his "army" consisted mainly of porters who were well-armed after pillaging Namakura a couple of months earlier.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Jurassic
Stage: Kimmeridgian
Age range: 152-151 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 2.5 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 80 Kg
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Virchow H (1919) "Atlas und Epistropheus bei den Schildkröten". Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, 8: 303–332.
• Janensch W (1914) "Die Gliederung der Tendaguru-Schichten im Tendaguru-Gebiet und die Entstehung der Saurier-Lagerstätten" Archiv fiir Biontologie, 3(3): 227-261.
• Galton P (1977) "The ornithopod dinosaur Dryosaurus and a Laurasia-Gondwanaland connection in the Upper Jurassic". Nature, 268(5617): 230-232.
• Maier G (2003) "African Dinosaurs Unearthed. The Tendaguru Expeditions".
• Witzmann F, Asbach P, Remes K, Hampe O, Hilger A and Paulke A (2008) "Vertebral Pathology in an Ornithopod Dinosaur: A Hemivertebra in Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki from the Jurassic of Tanzania". The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 291(9): 1149–1155. DOI: 10.1002/ar.20734.
• Bussert R, Heinrich W-D and Aberhan M (2009) "The Tendaguru Formation (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, southern Tanzania): definition, palaeoenvironments, and sequence stratigraphy". Fossil Record, 12 (2): 141–174. DOI: 10.1002/mmng.200900004.
• Hübner TR and Rauhut OWM (2010) "A juvenile skull of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Ornithischia: Iguanodontia), and implications for cranial ontogeny, phylogeny, and taxonomy in ornithopod dinosaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 160(2): 366-396. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00620.x.
• Witzmann F, Claeson K.M, Hampe O, Wieder F, Hilger A, Manke I, Niederhagen M, Rothschild BM and Asbach P (2011) "Paget disease of bone in a Jurassic dinosaur". Current Biology, 21(17): R647–8.
• Hübner TR (2012) "Bone Histology in Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Ornithischia: Iguanodontia) - Variation, Growth, and Implications". PLOS ONE, 7(1): e29958. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029958.
• Sobral G, Hipsley CA and Müller J (2012) "Braincase redescription of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) based on computed tomography". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32(5): 1090–1102. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2012.693554.
• Paul GS (2016) "The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: Second Edition".
• Hübner T (2018) "The postcranial ontogeny of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Ornithischia: Iguanodontia) and implications for the evolution of ornithopod dinosaurs". Palaeontographica Abteilung A, 310(3–6): 43–120. DOI: 10.1127/pala/2018/0072.
• Hübner TR, Foth C, Heinrich WD, Schwarz D and Bussert R (2021) "Research history, taphonomy, and age structure of a mass accumulation of the ornithopod dinosaur Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 66 (2): 275–300. DOI: 10.4202/app.00687.2019.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L. "DYSALOTOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
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