Uteodon Temporal range: Late Jurassic, ~ | |
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Skeleton at the Carnegie Museum | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Order: | † Ornithischia |
Clade: | † Ornithopoda |
Clade: | † Ankylopollexia |
Clade: | † Styracosterna |
Genus: | † Uteodon McDonald, 2011 |
Species: | †U. aphanoecetes |
Binomial name | |
†Uteodon aphanoecetes (Carpenter & Wilson, 2008) | |
Synonyms | |
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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]
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]
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]
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]
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 iguanodonts 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 crocodylomorphans, cotylosaurs, several species of pterosaurs like Harpactognathus , and early mammals, multituberculates, symmetrodonts, and triconodonts. [11]
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.
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'.
Como Bluff is a long ridge extending east–west, located between the towns of Rock River and Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The ridge is an anticline, formed as a result of compressional geological folding. Three geological formations, the Sundance, the Morrison, and the Cloverly Formations, containing fossil remains from the Late Jurassic of the Mesozoic Era are exposed.
Iguanodontia is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include Camptosaurus, Dryosaurus, Iguanodon, Tenontosaurus, and the hadrosaurids or "duck-billed dinosaurs". Iguanodontians were one of the first groups of dinosaurs to be found. They are among the best known of the dinosaurs, and were among the most diverse and widespread herbivorous dinosaur groups of the Cretaceous period.
Saurophaganax is a genus of large allosaurid 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 allosaurid 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.
Stokesosaurus is a genus of small, carnivorous early tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaurs from the late Jurassic period of Utah, United States.
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.
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.
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.
Nanosaurus is the name given to a genus of neornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic-age. 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.
Marshosaurus is a genus of medium-sized carnivorous theropod dinosaur, belonging to the Megalosauroidea, from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Utah and possibly Colorado.
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.
The Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry is situated in southwestern Colorado, United States, near the town of Delta. Its geology forms a part of the Morrison Formation and has famously yielded a great diversity of animal remains from the Jurassic Period, among them Ceratosaurus, Supersaurus, and Torvosaurus. The quarry is found within the Uncompahgre National Forest.
Theiophytalia is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur from the lower Cretaceous period of Colorado, USA. It contains a single species, T. kerri.
Dryosaurids were primitive iguanodonts. They are known from Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rocks of Africa, Europe, and North America.
Camarasaurus lentus is an extinct species of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period in what is now the western United States. It is one of the four valid species of the well-known genus Camarasaurus. C. lentus fossils have been found in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. It is the species of Camarasaurus found in Dinosaur National Monument and the middle layers of the Morrison Formation. Camarasaurus lentus is among the best-known sauropod species, with many specimens known. A juvenile specimen of C. lentus, CM 11338, is the most complete sauropod fossil ever discovered.
Owenodon is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur known from a partial lower jaw discovered in Early Cretaceous-age rocks of Durlston Bay, Dorset, United Kingdom. The specimen, NHM R2998, comes from the Purbeck Limestone, dating to the middle Berriasian stage. It was first described by Richard Owen, who in 1874 assigned it to Iguanodon as the type specimen of the new species I. hoggii, the specific name honouring naturalist A.J. Hogg who had originally collected the fossil in 1860. The bone was damaged during initial preparation but was freed from the surrounding rock matrix by an acid bath between 1975 and 1977. David Norman and Paul Barrett subsequently transferred the species to Camptosaurus in 2002, but this was challenged, and in 2009 Peter Galton assigned the species to the new genus Owenodon, meaning "Owen's tooth", named after Sir Richard Owen. Galton interpreted the genus as an iguanodontoid more derived than Camptosaurus but less derived than Lurdusaurus.
Osmakasaurus is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It is a basal iguanodontian which lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now Buffalo Gap of South Dakota, United States. It is known from the Chilson Member of the Lakota Formation. This genus was named by Andrew T. McDonald in 2011 and the type species is O. depressus.
Ankylopollexia is an extinct clade of ornithischian dinosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous. It is a derived clade of iguanodontian ornithopods and contains the subgroup Styracosterna. The name stems from the Greek word, “ankylos”, mistakenly taken to mean stiff, fused, and the Latin word, “pollex”, meaning thumb. Originally described in 1986 by Sereno, a most likely synapomorphic feature of a conical thumb spine defines the clade.