Protecovasaurus is a genus of archosaurian reptile from the Late Triassic Tecovas Formation of the southwestern United States. It was initially described as a basal ornithischian dinosaur, but was redescribed as a non-dinosaurian archosaur by Irmis et al. (2006). The type species, Protecovasaurus lucasi, was formally described by Andrew B. Heckert in 2004.
| Protecovasaurus Temporal range: Late Triassic,
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Diapsida |
| Clade: | incertae sedis |
| Genus: | †Protecovasaurus Heckert, 2004 |
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Its name, Protecovasaurus, means "before Tecovasaurus". Tecovas was the formation the holotype specimen was found in.
References
edit- Heckert, A. B. (2004). Late Triassic microvertebrates from the lower Chinle Group (Otischalkian-Adamanian: Carnian), southwestern U.S.A. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 27, 170 p.
- Irmis, R.B., Parker, W.G., Nesbitt, S.J., and Liu, J. (2006). Early ornithischian dinosaurs: the Triassic record. Historical Biology, 19(1):3-22.