Anchisaurus
genus of sauropodomorphs
Anchisaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Early Jurassic Period, and its fossils have been found in the red sandstone of the Upper Portland Formation, Northeastern United States, which was deposited from the Hettangian age into the Sinemurian age, between about 200 and 192 million years ago. Until recently it was classed as a member of Prosauropoda. The genus name Anchisaurus comes from the Greek αγχι (agkhi) anchi-; "near, close" + Greek σαυρος (sauros); "lizard". Anchisaurus was coined as a replacement name for "Amphisaurus", which was itself a replacement name for Hitchcock's "Megadactylus", both of which had already been used for other animals.
Discovery and naming
Sauropodomorph remains were first documented in North America in 1818, when some bones nearly 1.8 m (6 ft) in length were uncovered by Mr. Solomon Ellsworth Jr. while excavating a well with gunpowder in East Windsor, Connecticut. At the time of their discovery it was thought that the bones might be those of a human, but the presence of tail vertebrae falsified that idea. They are now recognized as those of an indeterminate sauropodomorph, possibly more closely related to the plateosaurian prosauropods.
“Anchisaurus” enters the record as genus of sauropodomorphs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anchisaurus, genus and sauropodomorphs can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Anchisaurus” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Anchisaurus, genus and sauropodomorphs provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q311281. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1818.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anchisaurus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.