Osmakasaurus (meaning "canyon lizard", ósmaka meaning "canyon" in the Lakota language) is a genus of dinosaur which lived in the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian age) Chilson Member of the Lakota Formation in what is now Buffalo Gap of South Dakota, United States. This genus was named by Andrew T. McDonald in 2011 and the type species is O. depressus.
Discovery and naming
The holotype, USNM 4753, was discovered by Nelson Horatio Darton in 1896 within a layer of the
Lakota Formation. The type species
O. depressus was previously referred to as
Camptosaurus depressus, and was first described in 1909 by Charles W. Gilmore.
[Gilmore, C.W. (1909). "Osteology of the Jurassic reptile Camptosaurus, with a revision of the species of the genus, and description of two new species". Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum. 332.] It was assigned to the genus
Planicoxa as
Planicoxa depressa in 2008.
In 2011, it was assigned to the new genus
Osmakasaurus.
