Pronunciation: Ny-as-a-SOR-us
Meaning: Nyasa lizard
Author/s: Nesbit et al. (2013)
Synonyms: Thecodontosaurus alophos
First Discovery: Ruhuhu Basin, Tanzania
Discovery Chart Position: #823
Nyasasaurus parringtoni
First things first: we're still not sure whether Nyasasaurus is actually a dinosaur or the closest non-dinosaurian relative of the Dinosauria. We do know its remains were found in the 1930s, that it was tagged "Specimen 50b" in Alan J. Charig's doctoral thesis in 1956, that "Nyasasaurus" was first coined in his review of Archosaurs in 1967, and although a manuscript had been prepared it was never published because of his unfortunate passing and so remained unofficial.
Independently, Sterling Nesbit, Paul Barrett, Sarah Werning, and Christian Sidor came to the same conclusions and for the same reasons that Charig had all those years ago. So they added his name to the list of co-authors to ensure the validity of a name he had chosen—Nyasasaurus parringtoni—when it received its first official description in 2012, which was a touch of class rarely seen these days.
As of 2012, every reported pre-late Carnian "dinosaur" fossil or footprint has peed on palaeontologists' parades by not actually being dinosaurian, and we were beginning to wonder if one would ever be found, or anything even close. If Nyasasaurus is a dinosaur, it's the oldest one currently known, and its discovery in Middle Triassic Anisian period deposits would push the age of dinosaurs back some 15 million years.
Independently, Sterling Nesbit, Paul Barrett, Sarah Werning, and Christian Sidor came to the same conclusions and for the same reasons that Charig had all those years ago. So they added his name to the list of co-authors to ensure the validity of a name he had chosen—Nyasasaurus parringtoni—when it received its first official description in 2012, which was a touch of class rarely seen these days.
As of 2012, every reported pre-late Carnian "dinosaur" fossil or footprint has peed on palaeontologists' parades by not actually being dinosaurian, and we were beginning to wonder if one would ever be found, or anything even close. If Nyasasaurus is a dinosaur, it's the oldest one currently known, and its discovery in Middle Triassic Anisian period deposits would push the age of dinosaurs back some 15 million years.
(Parrington's Nyasa Lake Lizard)Etymology
Nyasasaurus is derived from "Nyasa" (for Lake Nyasa near the type locality) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard). Named by Scottish missionary David Livingstone in 1859, Lake Nyasa is also known as Lake Malawi, though only to Malawians who have been in dispute with Tanzania over ownership since colonial times.
The species epithet, parringtoni, honours Francis Rex Parrington, collector of the holotype.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FCA304D8-B5DF-4E89-A557-343232C8EE0E.
Discovery
The remains of Nyasasaurus were discovered at "Parrington's
locality B36" in the Lifua Member of the Manda beds,
Ruhuhu Basin, southern Tanzania, by Francis Rex Parrington sometime in the 1930s.
The holotype (NHMUK R6856) is a right humerus, three partial pre-hip and three hip vertebrae, stored at London's Natural History Museum. A referred specimen (SAM-PKK10654), consisting of three neck vertebrae and two pre-hip vertebrae, was previously known as Thecodontosaurus alophos and resides at the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa.
