#silvisaurus condrayi

[mckitterick]

Silvisaurus condrayi designated official state land fossil of Kansas

Silvisaurus condrayi as depicted by Oscar Sanisidro, with bones

Silvisaurus condrayi, the only dinosaur known to have lived on the land in what is now Kansas, is again strutting its stuff in the Natural History Museum in Lawrence.

Silvisaurus is a species of armored ankylosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period 145 - 65 million years ago. At the time, Kansas was mostly inundated by the Western Interior Seaway, but Silvisaurus lived in a forested shoreline, indicated by an abundance of fossil leaves discovered with its skeletal remains. These leaf fossils inspired its discoverer to name it Silvisaurus (woodland lizard) condrayi (after the farmer who found its bones on his farm).

Silvisaurus stood about 3 feet tall and 12 feet long, a plant eater with protective armor-like bony plates embedded in its skin, parallel spikes running down its neck, and large spikes over its shoulders. This profusion of protective gear indicates it had predators, though no large land predators have been found in Kansas.

more on the state dinosaur story: X

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Silvisaurus condrayi

By José Carlos Cortés on @ryuukibart

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Name: Silvisaurus condrayi

Name Meaning: Woodland Reptile

First Described: 1960

Described By: Eston

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Thyreophora, Eurypoda, Ankylosauria, Nodosauridae

Silvisaurus is a Nodosaurid known from the Dakota Formation in Kansas, living from the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous, approximately 96 to 93.5 million years ago. It is known from an incomplete skeleton, including part of the skull, but the fossil itself was fairly poor and are from the bottom of a river, where they had been trampled by cattle. It was probably about 4 meters long, and it was probably a fairly early derived Nodosaurid due to the teeth in the front of it’s jaw. It had large air passages in the skull for loud vocalizations. 

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvisaurus

Shout out goes to @aceofaxes!

[lunar-goodness]

Went to the KU natural history museum with my brother and saw Kansas’s official state land fossil!

Kansas Designates Silvisaurus Condrayi the Official State Land Fossil

Silvisaurus is a species of ankylosaur, an armored dinosaur, which lived during the Cretaceous period 145.5-65.5 million years ago. At the time, Kansas was partially covered by the Western Interior Seaway; however, Silvisaurus lived in a forested area, indicated by an abundance of fossil leaves that were discovered with its skeletal remains. These leaf fossils inspired Eaton to name the dinosaur Silvisaurus, which means “woodland lizard.” To date, it is the only land-dwelling dinosaur known to have lived in the area. Silvisaurus stood 3 feet tall and was about 12 feet long. Its protective armor-like plates and spikes indicate that it may have had predators, though none have been found in Kansas so far. While other dinosaurs have been found in the state, they are from deposits that were under the sea during the Cretaceous period. Because they were discovered in areas that were far from land at that time, they presumably washed into the area from other regions.

Brother for scale!