Toxolophosaurus
genus of reptiles (fossil)
Toxolophosaurus was a sphenodont which lived in North America during the Early Cretaceous.
The first specimen, consisting of a pair of lower jaws, was found by George Cloud and described by Everett C. Olson in 1960 in the Kootenai Formation of Montana, 223.75 feet above the base of the Kootenai. Olson originally classified Toxolophosaurus as a member of the family Trilophosauridae, which was a group of primitive lizard-like reptiles which lived during the Triassic Period, although he provided no reasons for this decision. In 1981, Toxolophosaurus was reassigned to the family Sphenodontidae, on the basis that the specimens were more similar to Sphenodon than to members of Trilophosauridae. This classification was confirmed in 1985 by Michael Benton. It is closely related to Priosphenodon and Eilenodon.
In addition to the specimen recovered from Montana, numerous sphenodont fossils which have been ascribed to Toxolophosaurus have also been found within the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation.
Toxolophosaurus was herbivorous.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Toxolophosaurus” as genus of reptiles (fossil). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of reptiles (fossil). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7830451. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1981 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Toxolophosaurus” 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.