IGNAVUSAURUS
a plant-eating sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Lesotho.
Pronunciation: ig-NAY-vu-SOR-us
Meaning: Coward lizard
Author/s: Knoll (
2010)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Ha Ralekoala, Lesotho
Discovery Chart Position: #702
Ignavusaurus rachelis
(Raquel's Coward lizard)Etymology
Ignavusaurus is derived from the Latin word "ignavus" ("coward", but can also mean "lazy") and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), not because it was any more of a scaredy-cat than other sauropodomorphs but because of its place of discovery — Ha Ralekoala — which literally means "The place of the
father of the coward". We'll bet there is an interesting story behind the name, and we would love to tell you what that story is. Unfortunately, no one knows. Not even Fabian Knoll (pers.comm.), who named
Ignavusaurus.
The
species epithet,
rachelis, honours palaeontologist Raquel López-Antoñanzas of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid.
Discovery
The remains of
Ignavusaurus were discovered in the reddish siltstone of the Upper Elliot Formation (Stormberg Group) at Ha Ralekoala, Quacha's Nek, Lesotho.
The
holotype (BM HR 20) is a partial, well preserved, articulated skeleton.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Jurassic
Stage: Hettangian
Age range: 201-196 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 1.5 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 22 Kg
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Knoll F (2002) "Les Fabrosauridae Galton, 1972 (Dinosauria: Ornithischia): répartition
géographique et stratigraphique; systématique et phylogénie — Volumes 1 + 2".
Ph.D.
dissertation, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
• Knoll F (2010) "A primitive sauropodomorph from the upper Elliot Formation of Lesotho".
Geological Magazine, 147(6): 814–829. DOI: 10.1017/S001675681000018X
• Yates AM, Bonnan MF and Neveling J (2011) "A new basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 31(3): 610–625. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2011.560626
• Apaldetti C, Martinez RN, Alcober OA and Pol D (2011) "A New Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from Quebrada del Barro Formation (Marayes-El Carrizal Basin), Northwestern Argentina".
PLOS ONE, 6(11): e26964. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026964
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
IGNAVUSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/IGNAVUSAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
