Acanthopholis
| Acanthopholis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Assigned dermal scutes
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Acanthopholinae Nopcsa, 1923 |
| Genus: | †Acanthopholis Huxley, 1867 |
| Species: | †A. horrida
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Acanthopholis horrida Huxley, 1867
| |
Acanthopholis (
History
Around 1865 commercial fossil collector
metallurgist Dr. John Percy. Percy brought them to the attention of Thomas Henry Huxley
, who paid Griffiths to dig up all fossils he could find at the site. Despite being hampered by the fact that it was located between the tidemarks, he managed to uncover several additional bones and parts of the body armour.
In 1867 Huxley named the genus and species Acanthopholis horridus.armour, being derived from Greek άκανθα akantha meaning 'spine' or 'thorn' and φόλις pholis meaning 'scale'. The specific name horridus means 'frightening' or 'rough' in Latin. Arthur Smith Woodward emended the species name to Acanthopholis horrida in 1890 because pholis is feminine.[2]
The
basicranium, a dorsal vertebra
, spikes and scutes.
In 1869
Franz Nopcsa changed it into another species of Acanthopholis: Acanthopholis major. Nopcsa at the same time renamed Anoplosaurus curtonotus into Acanthopholis curtonotus. In 1879 Seeley named the genus Syngonosaurus based on part of the type material of "A. macrocercus". In 1956 Friedrich von Huene renamed A. platypus into Macrurosaurus platypus.[8]
In 1999
Paul M. Barrett reviewed all Acanthopholis material. They concluded that all species were nomina dubia whose syntype specimens were composites of non-diagnostic ankylosaur and ornithopod remains. For example, the metatarsals included in the syntype series of Acanthopholis platypus are from a sauropod, but the remaining syntypes are not. They also found two previously unpublished names which Seeley had used to label museum specimens: "Acanthopholis hughesii" indicated SMC B55463-55490 and "Acanthopholis keepingi" SMC B55491-55526. Both names were not proposed by them as new species and are nomina nuda.[9]
Syngonosaurus was synonymised with Acanthopholis in 1999, but the genus was reinstated in a 2020 study, when Syngonosaurus and Eucercosaurus were reinterpreted as basal iguanodontians.[10]
A partial
nodosaur skeleton from the Gault Formation in Kent, which had been scavenged by sharks shortly after the animal had died, was discovered and excavated between 2000-01 and it has been tentatively assigned to Acanthopholis.[11] The specimen consists of osteoderms, vertebrae, parts of the sacrum and parts of the limbs and it is currently on loan from a private collection and is on display at the Maidstone Museum.[11]
Description
life restoration
The armour of Acanthopholis consisted of oval keeled plates set almost horizontally into the skin, with long spikes protruding from the neck and shoulder area, along the spine. Acanthopholis was
quadrupedal and herbivorous
. Its size has been estimated to be in the range of 3 to 5.5 meters (9.8 to 18.0 ft) long and approximately 380 kilograms (840 lb) in weight.
Classification
Acanthopholis was originally assigned to the
Acanthopholididae.[12] Later, he named Acanthopholinae as a subfamily. In 1928, he corrected Acanthopholididae to Acanthopholidae.[13] Today Acanthopholis is considered a member of the Nodosauridae within the Ankylosauria
.
See also
References
- ^ S2CID 128679805.
- ^ Woodward, A.S.; Sherborn, C.D. (1890). A Catalogue of British Fossil Vertebrata. Dulau & Company. p. 209.
- S2CID 140673032.
- ^ Seeley, H.G. (1869). Index to the Fossil Remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia from the Secondary Strata arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. Deighton, Bell and Company. pp. xvii.
- ISSN 0374-5481.
- ^ H.G. Seeley, 1876, "On Macrurosaurus semnus (Seeley), a long tailed animal with procoelous vertebrae from the Cambridge Upper Greensand, preserved in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge", Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 32: 440-444 doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1876.032.01-04.50
- S2CID 129277596.
- ^ von Huene, F. (1956) "Palaeontologie und Phylogenie der niederen Tetrapoden"
- ^ Superbiola, X.P.; Barrett, P.M. (1999). "A systematic review of ankylosaurian dinosaur remains from the Albian-Cenomanian of England". Special Papers in Palaeontology. 60: 177–208.
- S2CID 225289654.
- ^ ISBN 9780957453050
- ^ B. F. Nopcsa. 1902. Notizen über cretacische Dinosaurier [Notes on Cretaceous dinosaurs]. Sitzungsberichte der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 111(1):93-114
- ^ B. F. Nopcsa. 1928. The genera of reptiles. Palaeobiologica 1:163-188
References
- Carpenter, Kenneth (2001). "Phylogenetic Analysis of Ankylosauria". In Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.). The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. pp. 455–480. ISBN 0-253-33964-2.