Laosaurus - the Dinosaur shrouded in Mystery

Laosaurus means a lizard engraved in stones. It is a giant dinosaur of the hypsilophodont genus. The man who is associated with the unveiling of Laosaurus mystery was O.C.Marsh. He made such an epoch making discovery in the year 1878 from some body remains at Wyoming . The fossil was not in a good state so it is not definite to say when actually Laosaurus ruled over the wild tracts of ancient earth.

Marsh found the remains from the rocks that are called Morrison Formation. The remains that were found were a handful of partial and tail vertebra. Marsh came to the conclusion from the remains that it was a fox like animal. In that particular year he came in close proximity of two other species and named them L. gracilis and L.altus. Later on two other scientists Peter Galton and Charles Gilmore viewing other remains came to the conclusion in very recent time that they were no fox remains, they were of a dinosaur.

From the very initial discovery of remains till the recent times there are galore of controversies regarding the genus. It was Gilmore who open heartedly declared that the skeleton and the broken skull that were found were of an ornithopod, very small in size. That species was named Laosaurus gracilis. Time rolled on there was no other report of that perfect species from any corner of the globe. The Laosaurus remained covered with the pall of mystery till then.

Gilmore came to the firm conclusion that it was a dinosaur from a thigh bone that proved that the species had the power of walking and jumping. The vertebra brought before Gilmore the fact that the animal whose remains he was studying was very similar to that of lizards and the frog. Later on it was Galton who pointed that the femur referred to Othnielia, a particular hypsilophodont genus of dinosaur named after the first describer Othniel Marsh of the US .

A famous geologic unit in Alberta preserves many skeletons and fossils of dinosaurs that belonged to the upper Cretaceous and late Campanian period. Visiting the two famous units Gilmore came to the conclusion that the remains that are kept here are of Laosaurus, a typical Jurassic genus. Loris Russell hinted that Gilmore was absolutely wrong and he tagged with the name Laosaurus minimus. He stuck to the point that the dinosaur in the center of argument was very much like Hypsilophondon, an ornithopod genus of the very Cretaceous period of past Europe .

The next one who willingly plunged in the Laosaurus debate was Galton. It was in 1977 he never hesitated to attach Laosaurus to L.consors and obviously L.gracialis that are nothing but ornithopods. Ornithopods are that type of dinosaurs that were born very small but with the roll of time grew in size until they proved their potential as the efficient grazers. What ever it may be Laosaurus were, though shrouded in the veil of mystery, were nothing but herbivores and roamed feely in the North American green pastures. However no solid information regarding Laosaurus came into full view till date. Everything that shocks the paleontologists is heap of hypotheses, nothing else.