Anchisaurus Pronunciation

Fun Facts

• ✓Anchisaurus fossils were first discovered in Connecticut in 1818, more than two decades before scientists even coined the word 'dinosaur' in 1842, meaning workers stumbled across its bones without knowing what they had found.
• ✓The same bones were originally given three completely different scientific names over the decades: Megadactylus, then Amphisaurus, then finally Anchisaurus, each time because someone noticed the previous name was already taken by another animal.
• ✓Anchisaurus lived in what is now the northeastern United States during a time when that region was a hot, semi-arid landscape closer to the equator, more like modern Morocco than modern New England.
• ✓Anchisaurus had a notably large curved claw on each thumb, which scientists think it may have used to pull branches down toward its mouth or possibly to defend itself against predators.
• ✓At roughly 6.5 feet long, Anchisaurus was a tiny preview of what its sauropod relatives would become: some of its later cousins, like Patagotitan, would grow to over 100 feet long, making Anchisaurus look like a toy version of the family.