STL Science Center

STL Science Center

30 April 2013

Discovering Staurikosaurus

Staurikosaurus was named in 1970 and discovered a while before that; 1936 to be exact. Edwin Colbert, the American that named the dinosaur, had the fortune of having the specimen loaned to him for study. His description and comparison with other materials lead to the discovery that this "archosaurian reptile" was one of the earlier dinosaurs of the Triassic. He named his new discovery after the Southern Cross, a constellation, and after the man responsible for the collection of this and many other discoveries in the Brazilian Triassic soils. His initial description of the material is very in depth and contains some nice plates; there is a combination of illustrations and photographs in the paper. Another paper which may warrant attention is a slightly newer paper by D.B. Brinkman and Hans-Dieter Sues. Their paper identifies and describes a Staurikosaurus sp. from Argentina's Ischigualasto formation. They also describe the relationships between Herrarasaurus and Staurikosaurus as sister taxa as well as confirm the placement of Staurikosaurus within the dinosaurs. There are a few other papers out there, but I think these two are good for one day as they are both a bit heavily detailed.

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