Trimucrodon

Trimucrodon (meaning "three-pointed tooth") is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Alcobaça Formation of what is now Portugal. It has been classified as a basal ornithischian, but is a nomen dubium: it is a "tooth genus" known only from its teeth.

Trimucrodon
Temporal range: Late Jurassic,
155–150 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Sauropsida
Superorder:
Dinosauria
Order:
†Ornithischia
Genus:
†Trimucrodon

Thulborn, 1975
Binomial name
†Trimucrodon cuneatus
Thulborn, 1975

Discovery and naming

Between 1962 and 1967 German zoologist and paleontologist Georg Krusat uncovered mammal fossils near Porto Dinheiro, Lourinha,[1] in layers of the Camadas de Alcobaça Formation. This rock unit was then seen as dating from the Kimmeridgian stage, around 150 to 155 million years ago. One small tooth was recognised by Richard A. Thulborn as dinosaurian instead of mammalian and in 1973 he described and named it Trimucrodon cuneatus; the paper was not published until 1975.[2] The generic name is derived from Latin tri- ('three'), + mucro ('dagger point'), + Ancient Greek ὀδούς, ὀδών (odoús, odṓn, 'tooth'). The specific name means "wedge-shaped" in Latin. The holotype tooth is part of the collection of the Lehrstuhl fur Paläontologie, Freie Universität at Berlin but has no published inventory number. Some other Portuguese teeth from the formation were referred to the species.

Classification

Thulborn originally classified Trimucrodon as a member of the Fabrosauridae. José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca in 2001 placed it within the Heterodontosauridae.[3] However, recent authors have considered it a basal ornthischian of uncertain affiliations.[4]

See also

References
  1. G. Krusat, 1969, "Ein Panthotheria-Molar mit dreispitzigem Talonid aus dem Kimmeridge von Portugal", Paläontologische Zeitschrift 43(1/2): 52-56
  2. Thulborn, R.A. (1975). "Teeth of ornithischian dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal, with description of a hypsilophodontid (Phyllodon henkeli gen. et sp. nov.) from the Guimarota lignite". Serviços Geológicos de Portugal, Memória (Nova Série) 22:89-134
  3. Ruiz-Omeñaca, J.I., 2001, Dinosaurios hipsilofodontidos (Ornithischia: Ornithopoda) en la Peninsula Iberica. Colectivo Arqeologico-Paleontologico de Salas, C.A.S., pp. 266
  4. Norman, David B.; Witmer, Larry M.; Weishampel, David B. (2004). "Basal Ornithischia". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 325–334. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.


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