Genus
Valid Extinct

Chindesaurus

Long and Murry 1995

Chindesaurus is an extinct genus of basal saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of the southwestern United States. It is known from a single species, C. bryansmalli, based on a partial skeleton recovered from Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The original specimen was nicknamed "Gertie", and generated much publicity for the park upon its discovery in 1984 and airlift out of the park in 1985. Other fragmentary referred specimens have been found in Late Triassic sediments throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but these may not belong to the genus. Chindesaurus was a bipedal carnivore, approximately as large as a wolf.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Dinosaures
Terrestrial
Chindesaurus
click to enlarge
Digital drawing of the known skeletal remains of Chindesaurus byansmalli. Known elements represented in white and unknown in gray. Reconstructed elements are based on Tawa hallae © Maurissauro · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
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Saurischia Unranked clade
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Chindesaurus Genus
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇺🇸 United States
2
Geological formations
Chinle
2
Temporal distribution
Norian (227.3–205.7 Ma)
2
Species (1)
Chindesaurus bryansmalli 227 Ma
Images 2
Bibliography
Original description
R. A. Long and P. A. Murry. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) Tetrapods from the Southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 4:1-254
Bibliography (2)
A. B. Heckert, S. G. Lucas, and R. M. Sullivan, A. P. Hunt, J. A. Spielmann. 2005. The vertebrate fauna of the Upper Triassic (Revueltian: early-mid Norian) Painted Desert Member (Petrified Forest Formation: Chinle Group) in the Chama Basin, northern New Mexico. New Mexico Geological Society, 56th Field Conference Guidebook, Geology of the Chama Basin 56:302-318 DOI ↗
R. A. Long and P. A. Murry. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) Tetrapods from the Southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 4:1-254