Uteodon

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Uteodon
Temporal range: Late Jurassic,
~153–148  Ma
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Camptosaurus aphanoecetes - IMG 0673.jpg
Skeleton at the Carnegie Museum
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Clade: Ankylopollexia
Clade: Styracosterna
Genus: Uteodon
McDonald, 2011
Species:
U. aphanoecetes
Binomial name
Uteodon aphanoecetes
(Carpenter & Wilson, 2008)
Synonyms

Uteodon (meaning "Ute tooth") is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It is a basal iguanodontian which lived during the late Jurassic period (Tithonian age) in what is now Uintah County, Utah. It is known from the middle of the Brushy Basin Member, Morrison Formation. The genus was named by Andrew T. McDonald in 2011 and the type species is U. aphanoecetes. [1]

Contents

History

The holotype specimen, CM 11337 (a virtually complete skeleton minus the skull and tail), was assigned to Camptosaurus medius (Marsh, 1894 [2] ) by Charles W. Gilmore in 1925. [3] When C. medius was synonymised with Camptosaurus dispar in 1980, [4] the holotype was seen to probably represent a new, then unnamed, species of Camptosaurus. [5] The species Camptosaurus aphanoecetes was first described in 2008 by Carpenter and Wilson. [6] In 2011, it was assigned to the new genus Uteodon. [1] In 2015, the Uteodon braincase was referred to Dryosaurus, and Uteodon and Cumnoria were synonymized with Camptosaurus, as C. aphanoectes and C. prestwichii, respectively. [7]

Description

Size comparison based on Hartman (2013) Uteodon Scale.svg
Size comparison based on Hartman (2013)

Based on the holotype and the related genus Camptosaurus , when fully grown, Uteodon would have grown up to around 6 metres (20 ft) long and would probably have weighed no more than around 400 kilograms (880 lb), [4] [1] although according to Hartman (2013), Uteodon could have been as small as around 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) long. [8]

Paleoecology

Provenance and occurrence

The single known specimen of Uteodon, CM 11337, was found in the Dry Mesa Quarry/Douglass Quarry of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation, Utah. [3] The rocks it was found in were medium-grained, coarse sandstone that was deposited during the Tithonian and Kimmeridgian stages of the Late Jurassic period, approximately 153 to 148 million years ago. [9]

Fauna and habitat

Life restoration of Uteodon Uteodon reconstruction raingerr.png
Life restoration of Uteodon

Studies suggest that the paleoenvironment of this section of the Morrison Formation included rivers that flowed from the west into a basin that contained a giant, saline alkaline lake and there were extensive wetlands in the vicinity. The Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry of western Colorado yields one of the most diverse Upper Jurassic vertebrate assemblages in the world. [10] The Dry Mesa Quarry has produced the remains of the sauropods Apatosaurus , Diplodocus , Barosaurus , Supersaurus , and Camarasaurus , the ornithopods Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus , and the theropods Allosaurus , Torvosaurus . Tanycolagreus , Koparion , Stokesosaurus , Ceratosaurus , and Ornitholestes , as well as Nanosaurus , Gargoyleosaurus , and Stegosaurus . [11]

The flora of the period has been revealed by fossils of green algae, fungi, mosses, horsetails, ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and several families of conifers. Animal fossils discovered include bivalves, snails, ray-finned fishes, frogs, salamanders, amphibians, turtles, sphenodonts, lizards, terrestrial (like Hoplosuchus ) and aquatic crocodylomorphs, cotylosaurs, several species of pterosaurs like Harpactognathus , and early mammals, multituberculates, symmetrodonts, and triconodonts. [11]

Related Research Articles

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Torvosaurus is a genus of large megalosaurine theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 165 to 148 million years ago during the Callovian to Tithonian ages of the late Middle and Late Jurassic period in what is now Colorado, Portugal, Germany, and possibly England, Spain, Tanzania, and Uruguay. It contains two currently recognized species, Torvosaurus tanneri and Torvosaurus gurneyi, plus a third unnamed species from Germany.

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

Dryosaurus is a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. It was an iguanodont. Fossils have been found in the western United States and were first discovered in the late 19th century. Valdosaurus canaliculatus and Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki were both formerly considered to represent species of Dryosaurus.

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

Camptosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America and possibly also Europe. The name means 'flexible lizard'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Como Bluff</span> United States historic place

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<i>Saurophaganax</i> Allosaurid theropod dinosaur genus from Late Jurassic period

Saurophaganax is a genus of large allosauroid dinosaur from the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic Oklahoma, United States. Some paleontologists consider it to be a junior synonym and species of Allosaurus. Saurophaganax represents a very large Morrison allosauroid characterized by horizontal laminae at the bases of the dorsal neural spines above the transverse processes, and "meat-chopper" chevrons. It was the largest terrestrial carnivore of North America during the Late Jurassic, reaching 10.5 metres (34 ft) in length and 2.7–3.8 metric tons in body mass.

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

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

Cumnoria is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a basal iguanodontian that lived during the Late Jurassic period in what is now Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

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

Planicoxa is a genus of advanced iguanodontian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of North America. It is known from the partial skeletons of several individual specimens. Its fossils were discovered in Utah, United States.

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

Laosaurus is a genus of neornithischian dinosaur. The type species, Laosaurus celer, was first described by O.C. Marsh in 1878 from remains from the Oxfordian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming. The validity of this genus is doubtful because it is based on fragmentary fossils. A second species from the Morrison Formation, L. gracilis, and a species from the late Cretaceous Allison Formation of Alberta, Canada, Laosaurus minimus, are also considered dubious.

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

Nanosaurus is an extinct genus of neornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic in North America. Its fossils are known from the Morrison Formation of the south-western United States. The type and only species, Nanosaurus agilis, was described and named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877. The taxon has a complicated taxonomic history, largely the work of Marsh and Peter M. Galton, involving the genera Laosaurus, Hallopus, Drinker, Othnielia, and Othnielosaurus, the latter three now being considered to be synonyms of Nanosaurus. It had historically been classified as a hypsilophodont or fabrosaur, types of generalized small bipedal herbivore, but more recent research has abandoned these groupings as paraphyletic and Nanosaurus is today considered a basal member of Neornithischia.

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

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Mesadactylus is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, United States. The genus was named in 1989 by James Jensen and Kevin Padian. The type species is Mesadactylus ornithosphyos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dry Mesa Quarry</span>

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

Owenodon is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur known from a partial lower jaw discovered in Early Cretaceous-age rocks of Dorset, United Kingdom, and possibly also Romania and Spain. The first and only definitive specimen was found in the Lulworth Formation of the Purbeck Limestone Group, dating to the middle Berriasian stage. It was first described by Richard Owen as a species Iguanodon, I. hoggii, honouring naturalist A.J. Hogg who had originally collected the fossil. Owen described the mandible as it was, partially embedded in a limestone block, but it was given to the Natural History Museum, London where it was accessioned as NHMUK PV R 2998 and further prepared. Some damage occurred to a tooth crown and part of the bone while stored in the collections. Redescription of I. hoggii by David Norman and Paul Barrett subsequently transferred the species to Camptosaurus in 2002, as well as tentatively referring other camptosaur-like material from the Purbeck beds to the species. The identity of the species was questioned, with Kenneth Carpenter and Yvonne Wilson, and Greg Paul, separating "C." hoggi from Camptosaurus as an intermediate ornithopod, until Peter Galton named the new genus Owenodon for it in 2009. Galton removed the material assigned by Norman and Barrett from Owenodon, but referred isolated teeth from the Bauxite of Cornet, Romania, and the El Castellar Formation of Spain to O. hoggii. The taxon, believed by Galton to be intermediate between Camptosaurus and Iguanodon, is of uncertain relationships, with the limited material preventing clear understanding of its position within ornithopod evolution. Phylogenetic studies have found Owenodon to be more primitive, equivalent to, or more derived than Camptosaurus, but it is often excluded to improve results.

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Ardetosaurus is an extinct genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Morrison Formation of northern Wyoming, United States. The genus contains a single species, Ardetosaurus viator. It was first described in 2024 on the basis of a partial articulated skeleton, including vertebrae from the neck, back, and tail, hip bones, and part of the left hindlimb. The genus is a member of the Diplodocinae, a subfamily of large long-necked dinosaurs with whiplike tails. Ardetosaurus represents one of many distinct sauropod taxa that coexisted in this formation.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Andrew T. McDonald (2011). "The taxonomy of species assigned to Camptosaurus (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2783: 52–68. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2783.1.4.
  2. Marsh, O, C. (1894). The typical Ornithopoda of the American Jurassic. American Journal of Science, 48, 85–90.
  3. 1 2 Gilmore, C.W. (1925). "Osteology of ornithopodous dinosaurs from the Dinosaur National Monument, Utah". Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum. 10: 385–410. doi: 10.5962/p.234845 .
  4. 1 2 G.S. Paul (2010) " The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs ". (Page 284).
  5. Dodson, P. (1980). Comparative osteology of the American ornithopods Camptosaurus and Tenontosaurus . Mémoires de la Société géologique de France 139:81–85.
  6. Carpenter, K.; Wilson, Y. (2008). "A New Species of Camptosaurus (Ornithopoda: Dinosauria) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, and a Biomechanical Analysis of Its Forelimb". Annals of Carnegie Museum. 76 (4): 227. doi:10.2992/0097-4463(2008)76[227:ANSOCO]2.0.CO;2.
  7. Carpenter, Kenneth; Lamanna, Matthew C. (2015). "The Braincase Assigned to the Ornithopod Dinosaur Uteodon McDonald, 2011, Reassigned to Dryosaurus Marsh, 1894: Implications for Iguanodontian Morphology and Taxonomy". Annals of Carnegie Museum. 83 (2): 149–165. doi:10.2992/007.083.0201. ISSN   0097-4463.
  8. 1 2 "Uteodon skeletal reconstruction (2013)". Dr. Scott Hartman's Skeletal Drawing. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  9. Jensen, J. A. and Ostrom, J. H. (1977). A second Jurassic pterosaur from North America. Journal of Paleontology 51(4):867–870
  10. Richmond, D.R. and Morris, T.H., (1999), Stratigraphy and cataclysmic deposition of the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry, Mesa County, Colorado, in Carpenter, K., Kirkland, J., and Chure, D., eds., The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study, Modern Geology v. 22, no. 1-4, pp. 121–143.
  11. 1 2 Chure, Daniel J.; Litwin, Ron; Hasiotis, Stephen T.; Evanoff, Emmett; Carpenter, Kenneth (2006). "The fauna and flora of the Morrison Formation: 2006". In Foster, John R.; Lucas, Spencer G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 233–248.