Syngonosaurus

Last updated

Syngonosaurus
Temporal range: late Albian
~105–100  Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Catalogue of the fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural history) By Richard Lydekker (1888) (20571332452).jpg
Vertebra of S. macrocercus as seen from two different angles
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Clade: Iguanodontia
Genus: Syngonosaurus
Seeley, 1879
Species:
S. macrocercus
Binomial name
Syngonosaurus macrocercus
Seeley, 1879
Synonyms

Syngonosaurus is an extinct genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It was an iguanodontian discovered in England [1] and was first described in 1879. The type species, S. macrocercus, was described by British paleontologist Harry Seeley in 1879 [2] and it was later synonymised with Acanthopholis , but the genus was reinstated in a 2020 study, when Syngonosaurus and Eucercosaurus were reinterpreted as basal iguanodontians. [3]

Contents

Discovery and naming

Sacral vertebra of A. macrocercus as seen from two different angles Syngonosaurus fossils.png
Sacral vertebra of A. macrocercus as seen from two different angles

In 1869 Harry Govier Seeley named several new species of Acanthopholis based on remains from the Cambridge Greensand, including A. macrocercus, based on specimens CAMSM B55570-55609. [4]

In 1879 Seeley named the genus Syngonosaurus based on part of the type material of Acanthopholis macrocercus. [2]

In 1999 Xabier Pereda-Superbiola and 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; including Syngonosaurus. [5]

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. [3]

Classification

Syngonosaurus was seen as an ankylosaur in both a 2001 publication [1] and a 2004 publication. [6] In 2020, Syngonosaurus was classified into Iguanodontia. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ankylosauria</span> Extinct order of dinosaurs

Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are known to have first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, and persisted until the end of the Cretaceous Period. The two main families of Ankylosaurs, Nodosauridae and Ankylosauridae are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere, but the more basal Parankylosauria are known from southern Gondwana during the Cretaceous.

<i>Acanthopholis</i> Genus of reptiles (fossil)

Acanthopholis is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur in the family Nodosauridae that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period of England. A single species, A. horrida, exists.

<i>Animantarx</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Animantarx is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early and Late Cretaceous of western North America. Like other nodosaurs, it would have been a slow-moving quadrupedal herbivore covered in heavy armor scutes, but without a tail club. The skull measures approximately 25 cm in length, suggesting the animal as a whole was no more than 3 meters long.

<i>Anoplosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Anoplosaurus is an extinct genus of herbivorous nodosaurid dinosaur, from the late Albian-age Lower Cretaceous Cambridge Greensand of Cambridgeshire, England. It has in the past been classified with either the armored dinosaurs or the ornithopods, but current thought has been in agreement with the "armored dinosaur" interpretation, placing it in the Ankylosauria.

<i>Stegopelta</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Stegopelta is a genus of struthiosaurin nodosaurid dinosaur. It is based on a partial skeleton from the latest Albian-earliest Cenomanian-age Lower and Upper Cretaceous Belle Fourche Member of the Frontier Formation of Fremont County, Wyoming, USA.

<i>Texasetes</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Texasetes is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaurs from the late Lower Cretaceous of North America. This poorly known genus has been recovered from the Paw Paw Formation near Haslet, Tarrant County, Texas, which has also produced the nodosaurid ankylosaur Pawpawsaurus.

<i>Cedarpelta</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Cedarpelta is an extinct genus of basal ankylosaurid dinosaur from Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. The type and only species, Cedarpelta bilbeyhallorum, is known from multiple specimens including partial skulls and postcranial material. It was named in 2001 by Kenneth Carpenter, James Kirkland, Don Burge, and John Bird. Cedarpelta has an estimated length of 7 metres and weight of 5 tonnes (11,023 lbs). The skull of Cedarpelta lacks extensive cranial ornamentation and is one of the only known ankylosaurs with individual skull bones that are not completely fused together.

<i>Hoplitosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Hoplitosaurus was a genus of armored dinosaur related to Polacanthus. It was named from a partial skeleton found in the ?Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Lakota Formation of Custer County, South Dakota. It is an obscure genus which has been subject to some misinterpretation of its damaged remains. Although there was a push to synonymize it with Polacanthus in the late 1980s-early 1990s, Hoplitosaurus has been accepted as a valid albeit poorly known genus in more recent reviews.

<i>Denversaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Denversaurus is a genus of panoplosaurin nodosaurid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian of Late Cretaceous Western North America. Although at one point treated as a junior synonym of Edmontonia by some taxonomists, current research indicates that it is its own distinct nodosaurid genus.

<i>Palaeoscincus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Palaeoscincus is a dubious genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur based on teeth from the mid-late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana. Like several other dinosaur genera named by Joseph Leidy, it is an historically important genus with a convoluted taxonomy that has been all but abandoned by modern dinosaur paleontologists. Because of its wide use in the early 20th century, it was somewhat well known to the general public, often through illustrations of an animal with the armor of Edmontonia and the tail club of an ankylosaurid.

<i>Kangnasaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Kangnasaurus is a genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur found in supposedly Early Cretaceous rocks of South Africa. It is known from a tooth and possibly some postcranial remains found in the early-Aptian Kalahari Deposits Formation. It was probably similar to Dryosaurus.

<i>Eucercosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Eucercosaurus is the name given to a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous. It was an ornithopod discovered in the Cambridge Greensand of England and is known from 19 centra, 3 sacrals, 4 dorsals and 12 caudals, and a neural arch found near Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. The type species, E. tanyspondylus, was described by British paleontologist Harry Seeley in 1879.

Rhadinosaurus is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaur first described in 1881 by Harry Govier Seeley, based on remains uncovered in Austria sometime between 1859 and 1870 by Edward Suess and Pawlowitsch. It was a herbivore that lived around 84.9 to 70.6 million years ago. The type species is R. alcimus.

<i>Macrurosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Macrurosaurus is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It was a titanosauriform which lived in what is now England. The type species, M. semnus, was named in 1876. A second species, M. platypus, may also exist.

Priodontognathus was a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur possibly from the Oxfordian-age Upper Jurassic Lower Calcareous Grit of Yorkshire, England. It is a dubious genus based on a maxilla, and has been erroneously mixed up with iguanodonts and stegosaurs.

<i>Cedrorestes</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Cedrorestes is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Utah. It is based on an incomplete skeleton which was found in the Valanginian-age Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of ankylosaur research</span>

This timeline of ankylosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ankylosaurs, quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs who were protected by a covering bony plates and spikes and sometimes by a clubbed tail. Although formally trained scientists did not begin documenting ankylosaur fossils until the early 19th century, Native Americans had a long history of contact with these remains, which were generally interpreted through a mythological lens. The Delaware people have stories about smoking the bones of ancient monsters in a magic ritual to have wishes granted and ankylosaur fossils are among the local fossils that may have been used like this. The Native Americans of the modern southwestern United States tell stories about an armored monster named Yeitso that may have been influenced by local ankylosaur fossils. Likewise, ankylosaur remains are among the dinosaur bones found along the Red Deer River of Alberta, Canada where the Piegan people believe that the Grandfather of the Buffalo once lived.

References

  1. 1 2 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.
  2. 1 2 3 Seeley, H.G. (1879). "On the Dinosauria of the Cambridge Greensand". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 35 (1–4): 591–636. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1879.035.01-04.42. ISSN   0370-291X. S2CID   129277596.
  3. 1 2 3 Barrett, Paul M.; Bonsor, Joseph A. (2020). "A revision of the non-avian dinosaurs Eucercosaurus tanyspondylus and Syngonosaurus macrocercus from the Cambridge Greensand, UK". Cretaceous Research. 118: 104638. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104638. S2CID   225289654.
  4. Seeley, H.G. (1871). "XXXVII.— On Acanthopholis platypus (Seeley), a Pachypod from the Cambridge Upper Greensand". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 8 (47): 305–318. doi:10.1080/00222937108696494. ISSN   0374-5481.
  5. 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.
  6. M. K. Vickaryous, T. Maryanska, and D. B. Weishampel. 2004. Ankylosauria. In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 363-392