Priodontognathus

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Priodontognathus
Temporal range:
Upper Jurassic
, Oxfordian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Thyreophora
Clade: †Ankylosauria
Genus: †Priodontognathus
Seeley
, 1875
Species:
†P. phillipsii
Binomial name
†Priodontognathus phillipsii
(Seeley, 1869)
Synonyms

Priodontognathus (meaning "

stegosaurs
.

History and taxonomy

Woodwardian Museum. Part of these formed the Forbes Collection that after the death of James Forbes-Young had in 1862 been donated to the University of Cambridge by his sons Charles Young and Henry Young. The provenance of this particular bone from that collection was unknown; first believed to be found near Tilgate from a Lower Cretaceous stratum, it was later thought to have been discovered somewhere near the coast of Yorkshire in a Jurassic layer.[2] Seeley initially assumed that it was referable to Iguanodon, and named it Iguanodon Phillipsii. The specific name honoured geology professor John Phillips. The five inch long fragment lacked the teeth, only seventeen empty tooth sockets being visible. By 1875, after subsequent preparation had uncovered the replacement teeth within the jaw bone, Seeley had recognized that it was different, and so gave it the generic name Priodontognathus. The name is derived from Greek prion, "saw", odous, "tooth" and gnathos, "jaw", in recognition of the form of its teeth.[3]
Because the replacement teeth had not yet erupted, their serrations had not been worn down and many sharp denticula could be seen, shaped as the points of a saw.

Because armored dinosaurs were very poorly known at the time, he had little to compare it to, and in light of this it is not too surprising that he later, in 1893, had it mixed up with the

type specimens
.

After this time, Priodontognathus was generally considered to be a stegosaurid,

Alfred Sherwood Romer also recognized that it was an ankylosaurian, although he synonymized it with Hylaeosaurus.[7]

Peter Galton reassessed the genus in 1980 and established that it was a distinct genus, which he compared to Priconodon and Sauropelta and assigned to Nodosauridae.[8] While his assessment of it as a type of ankylosaurian has been accepted, his belief that it was valid was not, and it has been usually considered a dubious genus of uncertain ankylosaurian affinities since then.[9][10][11][12]

"Omosaurus" phillipsii

As mentioned, Seeley named a femur Omosaurus phillipsii in 1893, which has become confused with this animal, due to being discussed in the same article (and considered to possibly be the same genus), and due to them having the same specific name. Omosaurus phillipsii, now known as "

Oxfordian stegosaurians.[13] The femur, which is in three pieces, is that of a juvenile.[13]

Paleobiology

As an ankylosaurian, Priodontognathus would have been a slow

theropods and other carnivores.[12]
It was a rather small animal, a few metres long; if the Oxfordian date is correct this might be seen as a feature shared with all early nodosaurids.

Miscellany

The double "i" at the end of the specific name for both Priodontognathus and "Omosaurus" phillipsii is an old formulation and is today not done. The extra "i" has not been formally removed and is the only valid spelling under the

lower case
being used for the beginning of all specific epithets even if they were derived from personal names, resulting in this case in a phillipsi.

See also

References

  1. ^ Seeley, H.G. (1869). Index to the fossil remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia from the Secondary Strata. Cambridge University Press:Cambridge, 143 p.
  2. ^ a b c d Seeley, H.G. (1893). On Omosaurus phillipsii. Annual Report, Yorkshire Philosophical Society, 1892. 52-57.
  3. ^ Seeley, H.G. (1875). On the maxillary bone of a new dinosaur (Priodontognathus phillipsii), contained in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 31:439-443.
  4. ^ von Huene, F. (1909). Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier. Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1909:12-22. [German]
  5. ^ von Zittel, K.A.. (1911). Grundzüge der Paläontologie (Paläozoologie). II. Abteilung. Vertebrata. Druck und Verlag von R. Oldenbourg:München, 1-598. [German]
  6. ^ Nopcsa, F. (1902). Notizen über cretacische Dinosaurier. Sitzungsberichte der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 111(1):93-114. [German]
  7. ISBN 0-89464-985-X
  8. ^ Galton, P.M. 1980. Priodontognathus phillipsii (Seeley), an ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic (or possibly Lower Cretaceous) of England. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte 1980(8):477-489.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-520-06727-4
  10. ^ Ford, T.L. (2000). A review of ankylosaur osteoderms from New Mexico and a preliminary review of ankylosaur armor. In: Lucas, S.G., and Heckert, A.B. (eds.). Dinosaurs of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 17:157-176.
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-253-33964-2
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-520-24209-2
  13. ^ a b A juvenile stegosaurian dinosaur, Omosaurus phillipsii Seeley from the Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) of England. Géobios 16:95-101.

External links

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