Nanosaurus agilis is the only known species of the extinct genus Nanosaurus (gr. “tiny lizard”) of ornithischian ornithopod dinosaur, which lived at the end of the Jurassic period, approximately 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Kimmeridgian, in what is today North America.
The taxon has a complicated taxonomic history, largely the work of Othniel C. Marsh and Peter M. Galton, involving the genera Laosaurus, Hallopus, Drinker, Othnielia, and Othnielosaurus, the latter three now considered synonyms of Nanosaurus. Historically it had been classified as a hypsilophodontid or fabrosaurid, types of small generalist bipedal herbivores, but more recent research has abandoned these groups as paraphyletic and today Nanosaurus is considered a basal member of Neornithischia.
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