Rileyasuchus
Rileyasuchus is a genus of phytosaur from the Rhaetian Magnesian Conglomerate of England. It has a confusing history, being associated with the taxonomy of Palaeosaurus and Thecodontosaurus, and being a replacement name for a preoccupied genus.
History and taxonomy
In 1902, Friedrich von Huene named the new genus for two vertebrae and a humerus from deposits in Bristol. He had recognized it as a phytosaur by 1908.It seems to have sat unrecognized for most of the 20th century, except for 1961 when Oskar Kuhn renamed it from Rileya to Rileyasuchus. Adrian Hunt in 1994 first suggested that it was a herrerasaurid, although this was never published. Benton et al. indicated that the type specimen was actually a chimera composed of a phytosaur humerus and Thecodontosaurus vertebrae. It is best regarded as a nomen dubium.
Rileya was named after palaeontologist and surgeon Henry Riley who helped to discover the first known fossils in Bristol in 1834.