Chindesaurus (/ˌtʃɪndɪˈsɔːrəs/ CHIN-diss-OR-əs) is an extinct genus of basal saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic (213-210 million years ago) of the southwestern United States.

Other fragmentary referred specimens have been found in Late Triassic sediments throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but these may not belong to the genus.

[6] A 2019 redescription of its holotype considered Chindesaurus to be a theropod closely related to Tawa, a slightly smaller dinosaur known from the Hayden Quarry of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

[1] This specimen, holotype PEFO 10395, is a partial skeleton, found within Petrified Forest National Park in Apache County, Arizona.

PEFO 10395 was discovered in 1984 by Bryan Small, who recovered the skeleton from a blue mudstone layer in the Chinle Formation's Upper Petrified Forest Member.

[3][8][1] Based on U-Pb dating of overlying and underlying units, the mudstone layer was deposited about 213 to 210 million years ago, during the Norian stage of the Triassic.

"Gertie" was subsequently airlifted by helicopter on June 6, 1985, and brought to the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) in Berkeley, CA, where it was prepared over the next several years.

[3] Native American staff and consultants of the national park have long voiced disapproval over the name of Chinde Point.

[11][12][7] The area was named after the Navajo word chindi (a taboo concept referring to an unhealthy negative miasma left at a person's place of death).

[11][7] A new name, Hózhó Point, was proposed in 2019[11] and formally adopted in September 2023,[7] after approval by the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Tohono O'odham, and Pascua Yaqui.

They removed all specimens except for the holotype from the genus, placing the rest as indeterminate material from the Chindesaurus + Tawa clade of their analysis.

However, these features may not be fully correlated with development in early dinosaurs, and the specimen has other traits indicating a post-juvenile stage, such as a trochanteric shelf and fused caudal neurocentral sutures.

The dorsal (trunk) vertebrae are deep, wide, and fairly short (from front-to-back), closer to the condition in herrerasaurids rather than Tawa and coelophysoids.

Neural spines expand outwards and backwards, forming "spine-tables", structures which are otherwise only observed in Herrerasaurus and Dilophosaurus among potential theropods.

[3][1] The postacetabular process (rear blade) of the ilium is low, with a horizontal ridge on its inner edge and a large roughly-textured tubercle on its outer surface.

However, Chindesaurus lacks a groove at the top of its femoral head, possesses a trochanteric shelf, and has a dorsolateral trochanter which is low and rounded, traits which contrast with Tawa.

Finally, the lower end of the tibia has a large and triangular posterolateral process which extends downwards and outwards from the rest of the bone, a trait also shared by Lesothosaurus and Guaibasaurus.

There is a distinct ascending process on the upper and outer part of the astragalus, surrounded by a system of pits, ridges, and depressions which connect to the tibia.

[19] A partial ilium originally assigned to Chindesaurus, from the Tecovas Formation of Texas, was later placed in its own genus and species, Caseosaurus crosbyensis, by Hunt et al.

[10] Baron & Williams redescribed Caseosaurus in 2018, and considered it to be a valid herrerasaurian taxon closely related to, but not within, the family Herrerasauridae, in the larger clade Herrerasauria.

[22] The hypothesis of close relations to Tawa was elaborated upon in 2019, when the holotype specimen of Chindesaurus was redescribed by Adam D. Marsh, William G. Parker, Max C. Langer, and Sterling J. Nesbitt.

They included a phylogenetic analysis which placed the Chindesaurus + Tawa clade in the base of Theropoda, a similar position to that first described for Tawa.Their sister-taxon relationship was supported by one apomorphy, or unique derived trait: a posterior margin of the proximal end of the tibia which is divided by two notches.