Pisanosaurus
| Pisanosaurus Temporal range: Late Triassic ~ | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of the skull, white bones are known, light grey bones were known from heavily eroded impressions | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia (?) |
| Genus: | †Pisanosaurus Casamiquela, 1967 |
| Species: | †P. mertii |
| Binomial name | |
| †Pisanosaurus mertii Casamiquela, 1967 | |
Pisanosaurus (/pɪˌsænəˈsɔːrəs/ piss-AN-ə-SOR-əs) is an extinct genus of early dinosauriform, likely an ornithischian or silesaurid, from the Late Triassic of Argentina. It was a small, lightly built, ground-dwelling herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 1 m (3.3 ft) long. Only one species, the type, Pisanosaurus mertii, is known, based on a single partial skeleton discovered in the Ischigualasto Formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwestern Argentina. This part of the formation has been dated to the late Carnian, approximately 229 million years ago.