Sunday, 22 November 2009 British Wildlife: T Thecodontosaurus
antiquus Morris, 1843 Thecodontosauridae; Saurischia;
Sauropsida; Chordata Thecodontosaurus has often been nicknamed
'The Bristol Dinosaur'. Its remains were first found in Clifton,
near the Avon Gorge, and remains one of the earliest dinosaurs
yet to be found in Britain. The remains date to the Late
Triassic, a time when dinosaurs were radiating from initially
theropod-like forms into prosauropods and basal ornithischians.
Thecodontosaurus is either a primitive prosauropod or a basal
sauropodomorph. This means it could be ancestral to the first
dinosaurs to have become either sauropods or prosauropods (long-
necks and not-quite-so-long-necks). Thecodontosaurus antiquus
bones in matrix Bristol City Museum Talpa europaea Linnaeus,
1758 Talpidae; Eulipotyphla; Mammalia; Chordata Moles are the
third type of 'insectivore' found in Britain (I covered
hedgehogs here and shrews here). They are distinctive-looking
enough to most people for them to be famili