Dyslocosaurus (meaning hard-to-place lizard) is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period of Wyoming, North America. The type species is Dyslocosaurus polyonychius.
DIscovery and Naming[]
The holotype (AC 663) was collected by professor Frederic Brewster Loomis. In 1963, the specimen was brought to the attention of John Stanton McIntosh, who later, together with William Coombs and Dale Russell, decided to create a new genus and species for it. The genus name is derived from Greek dys, "bad, "poor", and Latin locus, "place", a reference to the paucity of data regarding the type locality of the fossil. The specific name is derived from Greek polys, "many", and onyx, "claw". The describers interpreted the remains, consisting of some limb bones, as those of a diplodocid dinosaur, like most diplodocids. The species name, meaning "five claws", implies that Dyslocosaurus had four or five claws on the foot, whereas other diplodocids have only three.