 Adrian Hunt and Spencer G. Lucas , American paleontologists , named Anasazisaurus horneri in 1993 . The name was derived from the Anasazi , an ancient Native American people , and the Greek word sauros ( " lizard " ) . The Anasazi were famous for their cliff @-@ dwellings , such as those in Chaco Canyon , near the location of fossil Anasazisaurus remains . The term " Anasazi " itself is actually a Navajo language word , anaasází ( " enemy ancestors " ) . The species was named in honor of Jack Horner , the American paleontologist who first described the skull in 1992 . The holotype skull ( and only known specimen ) was collected in the late 1970s by a Brigham Young University field party working in San Juan County , and is housed at BYU as BYU 12950 . 
