Thespesius
| Thespesius Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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| The syntype fossils | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | †Ornithopoda |
| Family: | †Hadrosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Saurolophinae |
| Genus: | †Thespesius Leidy, 1856 |
| Species: | †T. occidentalis
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| Binomial name | |
| Thespesius occidentalis Leidy, 1856
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| Synonyms | |
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Thespesius, or Thespecius, is an extinct hadrosaur described by Joseph Leidy in 1876.
History of Thespesius
[change | change source]Thespecius was discovered in Montana in 1855. Known fossils include vertebrae and toe bones (phalanx).
The name Thespesius means wondrous one. Leidy avoided using the suffix "saurus" in the genus name because Vandiveer Hayden had claimed the bones came from a layer from the Miocene so there was a chance that the animal would turn out to be a mammal, though Leidy himself was convinced it was a dinosaurian. Thespesius turned out to be a dinosaur. The specific name occidentalis means "western" in Latin.
