Chindesaurus is an extinct genus of basal saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic (213-210 million years ago) of the southwestern United States. It is known from a single species, C. bryansmalli, based on a partial skeleton recovered from Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The original specimen was nicknamed "Gertie", and generated much publicity for the park upon its discovery in 1984 and airlift out of the park in 1985. Other fragmentary referred specimens have been found in Late Triassic sediments throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but these may not belong to the genus. Chindesaurus was a bipedal carnivore, approximately as large as a wolf.
Chindesaurus' classification is debated, and various papers have had different conclusions on its affinities. Its fossils were originally believed to belong to "prosauropods" (basal sauropodomorphs), but its original description and numerous subsequent papers argued that it was a herrerasaurid or herrerasaurian. A 2019 redescription of its holotype considered Chindesaurus to be a theropod closely related to Tawa, a slightly smaller dinosaur known from the Hayden Quarry of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.
Jurassic Park franchise[]
Chindesaurus was featured in the Jurassic Park Institute now available to browse on Dinopedia.
