Compsosaurus (meaning "elegant lizard") is an extinct genus of phytosaur, a crocodile-like reptile that lived during the Triassic. Its fossils have been found in North Carolina. The type species, Compsosaurus priscus, was named by American paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1856, although other sources say 1857. Compsosaurus may have been the same animal as the related Belodon.

Only four teeth are known, discovered in the Carnian-Rhaetian-aged coal fields of Chatham County, North Carolina (probably Red Sandstone Formation) and the New Oxford Formation of Pennsylvania.

Compsosaurus

References

Phytosaurs

Prehistoric reptile genera

Late Triassic reptiles of North America

Triassic geology of North Carolina

Fossils of North Carolina

Triassic geology of Pennsylvania

Paleontology in Pennsylvania

Nomina dubia

Fossil taxa described in 1856

Taxa named by Joseph Leidy

Compsosaurus