Teratosaurus is an extinct genus of reptiles that lived during the Late Triassic period, about 216 to 204 million years ago. It was found in a place in Germany known as the Stubensandstein.
The name Teratosaurus means “monster lizard.” This name comes from Greek words that mean “monster” and “lizard.” The type species, which is the first species described for this genus, is called Teratosaurus suevicus.
The first remains of Teratosaurus were discovered in 1860 by Sixt Friedrich Jakob von Kapff near Stuttgart, Germany. He found a large upper jaw bone, which was later named by Hermann von Meyer. This bone had six large teeth, each about five centimeters long. Scientists think that Teratosaurus could grow to about 6.2 meters or 20 feet long.
Over the years, there have been some misunderstandings about Teratosaurus. Early authors sometimes confused its bones with the remains of other types of dinosaurs. For a while, people thought Teratosaurus was a big meat-eating dinosaur similar to the carnosaurs of the Jurassic period. However, later studies by scientists like Peter Galton and Michael Benton revealed that Teratosaurus was not a dinosaur at all. Instead, it belonged to a group called rauisuchians, which were large predatory reptiles that often walked on four legs.
Other teeth and bones have been named after Teratosaurus, but many of these were later found to belong to different species. For example, some teeth originally named Teratosaurus lloydi were changed to their own names.
Overall, Teratosaurus is an interesting example of a prehistoric reptile that lived alongside the early dinosaurs during a very dynamic time in Earth’s history.