CRATEROSAURUS
a dubious plant-eating stegosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England.
Pronunciation: KRAY-tuh-ro-SOR-us
Meaning: Bowl lizard
Author/s: Seeley (
1874)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Bedfordshire, England
Discovery Chart Position: #36
Craterosaurus pottonensis
(Cup Lizard from Potton)Etymology
Craterosaurus is derived from the Greek "krater" (cup) and "sauros" (lizard).
The
species epithet,
pottonensis, means "from Potton" in Latin.
Discovery
The remains of
Craterosaurus were discovered in the Wobum Sands Formation in old workings for phosphate nodules (known locally as "coprolites") in the Potton
Beds, Bedfordshire, UK, by a Mr Charlesworth.
The
holotype (SMC B.28814) is the incomplete front part of a neural arch
from a back vertebra.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Aptian-Albian
Age range: 121-113 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
Craterosaurus
pottonensis
References
• Seeley HG (1874) "
On the base of a large lacertian cranium from the Potton Sands, presumably dinosaurian".
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 30(1-4): 690-692. DOI: 10.1144/GSL.JGS.1874.030.01-04.62.
• Nopcsa F (November 1912) "
Notes on British dinosaurs. Part V: Craterosaurus (Seeley)".
Geological Magazine, 9(11): 481-484.
• Galton P (1981) "
Craterosaurus pottonensis Seeley, a stegosaurian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of England, and a review of Cretaceous stegosaurs".
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 161(1): 28-46.
• Galton P (1985) "
British plated dinosaurs".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 5(3): 211-254. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1985.10011859.
• Weishampel DB, Barrett PM, Coria RA, Le Loueff J, Xu X, Zhao X, Sahni A, Gomani EMP and Noto CN (2004) "Dinosaur distribution (Early Cretaceous, Europe)". In Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Maidment SCR, Norman DB, Barrett PM and Upchurch P (2008) "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 6(4): 367–407. DOI: 10.1017/S1477201908002459.
• Maidment SCR (2010) "
Stegosauria: a historical review of the body fossil record and phylogenetic relationships".
Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 103: 199-210. DOI: 10.1007/s00015-010-0023-3.
• Parker S (2016) "
Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs".
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
CRATEROSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/CRATEROSAURUS›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
