page_title: Staurikosaurus
section_title: Discovery and occurrence
hierarchical_section_title: Staurikosaurus / Discovery and occurrence
caption_attribution_description: Português: Ilustração digital dos elementos ósseos conhecidos de Staurikosaurus pricei. Elementos conhecidos em branco e desconhecidos em cinza. English: Digital drawing of the known skeletal remains of Staurikosaurus pricei. Known elements represented in white and unknown in gray.
context_page_description: Staurikosaurus is a genus of herrerasaurid dinosaur from the Late Triassic of Brazil, found in the Santa Maria Formation.
context_section_description: Staurikosaurus means "Southern Cross" (after the star constellation visible from the Southern Hemisphere) and "Lizard" (from the Greek work "saurus" meaning lizard), thus "Southern Cross Lizard." The species name pricei is in the honor of Colbert's fellow paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price.
  The first known specimen of Staurikosaurus was recovered from the Paleontological Site Jazigo Cinco of the Santa Maria Formation , Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. Staurikosaurus was found in mid-Carnian sediments. The genus name refers to the star constellation "The Southern Cross", pictured in the coat of arms of Brazil and only visible in the Southern Hemisphere—when Staurikosaurus was described in 1970 , it was unusual to find dinosaurs in the Southern Hemisphere. The specific name honors the Brazilian paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price, who discovered it in 1936. It was described by Edwin Harris Colbert, working at the American Museum of Natural History. The rarity of Staurikosaurus remains may be a result of it being uncommon while alive, or because it lived in an environment like a forest, where fossils rarely form. Nonetheless, Garcia et al. (2019) referred the holotype of Teyuwasu barberenai as a second specimen of Staurikosaurus pricei (see Classification).
caption: Reconstructed skeleton showing known remains in white, and unknown in gray
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