Megalosaurus dunkeri

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Megalosaurus dunkeri
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Valanginian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Megalosauridae
Subfamily: †
Megalosaurinae
Genus: †Megalosaurus
Species:
†M. dunkeri
Binomial name
†Megalosaurus dunkeri
Dames, 1884
Synonyms
  • Altispinax dunkeri
    ? von Huene, 1923

"Megalosaurus" dunkeri is a

theropod dinosaur
, known only from a single tooth.

History

"M." dunkeri was originally named and described by

type specimen, a single tooth, was again described and also illustrated in a publication by Ernst Koken.[2] The specific name honours paleontologist Wilhelm Dunker, who, many years earlier, had discovered the tooth on the Deister, in the main coal seam of Obernkirchen. This holotype had been, under the inventory number UM 84, added by him to the collection of the University of Marburg.[1]

In 1888,

Altispinax dunkeri for NHMUK R1828, a series of three dorsal vertebrae with very high neural spines. The generic name is derived from Latin "altus" meaning "high" and Neo-Latin "spinax".[5] Oskar Kuhn mistakenly listed "Megalosaurus dunkeri" as the type species of Altispinax in 1939, unaware that von Huene erected Altispinax dunkeri by deliberate use of misidentification.[6]

In a 2016 study Michael W. Maisch considered Altispinax dunkeri to be a valid taxon. The author claimed that von Huene (1923) did not erect the genus Altispinax as a new genus for "Megalosaurus" dunkeri Dames (1884); rather, von Huene erected a new species Altispinax dunkeri by a deliberate use of misidentification in accordance with the article 11.10 of the

Becklespinax altispinax. Maisch considered Becklespinax to be an objective junior synonym of Altispinax, and Becklespinax altispinax to be an objective junior synonym of Altispinax dunkeri von Huene (1923).[7]

The "Megalosaurus" dunkeri holotype tooth consists of a crown with a length of six centimetres and a base length of twenty-two millimetres. It is moderately recurved with serrations on its back edge running all the way to the base. Dames concluded that there were two traits in which the tooth of "M." dunkeri differed from that of M. bucklandii: the lack of serrations on the front edge and the flatter cross-section.[1] However, already Lydekker pointed out that the serrations could have been worn off, and the greater flatness could have been caused by a compression of the fossil.

A number of teeth from the Weald Clay of southeastern England identified as "M." dunkeri by Lydekker appear to be related to "Megalosaurus" pannoniensis from the early Campanian Grünbach Formation Austria, and similar teeth from the Santonian Csehbánya Formation of Hungary.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Dames, W.B. (1885). "Vorlegung eines Zahnes von Megalosaurus aus den Wealden des Deisters", Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, Jahrbuch 1884, 36: 186-188
  2. ^ Koken, E. (1887). "Die Dinosaurier, Crocodiliden und Sauropterygier des Norddeutschen Wealden" [The dinosaurians, crocodylids and sauropterygians of the North German Wealden], In: Geologisch-Palaeontologische Abhandlungen 3(5): 311-419.
  3. ^ Lydekker, R. (1888). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, S.W., Part 1. Containing the Orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria. British Museum of Natural History, London, 309 pages.
  4. ^ Lydekker, R., 1889, "Note on some points in the nomenclature of fossil reptiles and amphibians, with preliminary notices of two new species" Geological Magazine, decade 3 6: 325-326
  5. ^ Huene, F. von (1923). "Carnivorous Saurischia in Europe since the Triassic". Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 34: 449-458.
  6. ^ Kuhn, O. (1939). Saurischia — Fossilium catalogus I, Animalia, Pars 87. 's-Gravenhage, W. Junk, 1939, 124 pages.
  7. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2016/0576
    .
  8. ^ Osi, Apesteguia and Kowalewski, 2010. Non-avian theropod dinosaurs from the early Late Cretaceous of Central Europe. Cretaceous Research. 31(3), 304-320.
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