Taveirosaurus is a type of dinosaur from a group that is thought to be related to mammals. It lived during the Late Cretaceous period, which was about 70 million years ago.
This dinosaur was discovered in the Argilas de Aveiro Formation in Portugal, and also in Laño, Spain.
The name “Taveirosaurus” means “Taveiro lizard.” It was first discovered when Miguel Telles Antunes and Giuseppe Manuppella found some fossils in a quarry near the village of Taveiro in 1968.
Among these fossils were some triangular teeth. In 1991, Antunes and another scientist, Denise Sigogneau-Russell, named the type species Taveirosaurus costai. The name pays tribute to a Portuguese geologist named João Carrington da Costa.
Most of what we know about Taveirosaurus comes from its teeth. The first tooth found was labeled CEGUNL-TV 10. Several other teeth, found later, were also linked to this dinosaur.
At first, scientists thought Taveirosaurus might be related to a group of dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs, which had thick skulls. As time went on, they changed their minds.
By 1995, some scientists suggested it belonged to Nodosauridae, another group of dinosaurs. However, further research showed that the teeth of Taveirosaurus looked more like those of early mammals called Eutriconodonta rather than dinosaurs.
In simple terms, Taveirosaurus was a dinosaur found only from its teeth, and scientists are still figuring out exactly where it fits in the family tree of life.