Tanystrosuchus is a name given to a type of dinosaur that lived a long time ago, around 208 million years ago, during the late Triassic period. Its name means “long crocodile,” and it is grouped into a category called theropods, which includes many meat-eating dinosaurs.
So far, we have only found one important piece of Tanystrosuchus: a fossil neck bone from the species T. posthumus. This bone was discovered in what is now Germany.
The story of Tanystrosuchus begins in the 1860s when a fossil was found by a paleontologist named S.F.J. von Kapff. In 1865, another scientist, Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer, looked at the bone but did not classify it at that time. Later on, in 1907, a scientist named Friedrich von Huene studied the fossil carefully and believed it belonged to a similar dinosaur called Tanystropheus. He then introduced the name Tanystropheus posthumus for it.
Over the years, the fossil changed hands and was stored in a museum in Stuttgart, Germany. However, it was misidentified as another type of ancient creature called Nicrosaurus.
In 2000, two researchers named Oliver Rauhut and Axel Hungerbühler took another look at the fossil. They found that, while it shared similarities with another dinosaur from the same era named Liliensternus, it was too incomplete to be classified properly. Because of this uncertainty, Tanystrosuchus is often considered a “nomen dubium,” which means its classification is doubtful.
In summary, Tanystrosuchus is a fascinating piece of dinosaur history with an intriguing journey through discovery and classification, albeit with some mystery surrounding it.