The first fossils of "Massospondylus" were described by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in 1854. Originally, Owen did not recognize these finds as those of a dinosaur; instead he attributed them to "large, extinct, carnivorous reptiles" that were related to today's lizards, chameleons and iguanas. This material, a collection of 56 bones, was found in 1853 by the government surveyor Joseph Millard Orpen in the Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa and was donated to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Among the remains were vertebrae from the neck, back, and tail; a shoulder blade; a humerus; a partial pelvis; a femur; a tibia; and bones of the hands and feet.
History of discovery
Massospondylus
Massospondylus | History of discovery
Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa South Africa Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa
what is massospondylus?
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Genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur
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Joseph Millard Orpen
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The first fossils of "Massospondylus" were described by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in 1854. Originally, Owen did not recognize these finds as those of a dinosaur; instead he attributed them to "large, extinct, carnivorous reptiles" that were related to today's lizards, chameleons and iguanas. This material, a collection of 56 bones, was found in 1853 by the government surveyor Joseph Millard Orpen in the Upper Elliot Formation at Harrismith, South Africa and was donated to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Among the remains were vertebrae from the neck, back, and tail; a shoulder blade; a humerus; a partial pelvis; a femur; a tibia; and bones of the hands and feet.
Massospondylus | History of discovery
On May 10, 1941, the Hunterian Museum was demolished by a German bomb, destroying all the fossils; only casts remain. Because the plaster casts of the lost type specimen fossils were not adequate to accurately diagnose a genus and species under modern taxonomic practices and for research purposes, Yates and Barrett (2010) designated BP/1/4934, a skull and a largely complete postcranial skeleton in the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, as the neotype specimen. "Massospondylus" remains have been found in the Upper Elliot Formation, the Clarens Formation, and the Bushveld Sandstone of South Africa and Lesotho, as well as the Forest Sandstone of Zimbabwe.
Massospondylus | History of discovery
"Massospondylus" had also been reported from Argentina, but this has been reassessed as a closely related but distinct genus. The fossils included several partial skeletons and at least one skull, found in the Lower Jurassic Canon del Colorado Formation of San Juan, Argentina. This material was named "Adeopapposaurus" in 2009. A specimen from South Africa previously assigned to "Massospondylus", BP/1/4779, became the holotype of the new genus and species "Ngwevu intloko" in 2019.
Massospondylus | History of discovery
This discovery therefore "sheds some light in the evolutionary pathways through which the peculiar adaptations of giant dinosaurs were attained", stated French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut.
Massospondylus | Reproduction
All these bones were found disarticulated, making it difficult to determine if all material belongs to a single species or not. However, Owen was able to distinguish three different types of caudal vertebrae, which he attributed to three different genera: "Pachyspondylus", "Leptospondylus" and "Massospondylus". "Massospondylus" was separated from the other two genera on the basis of its much longer caudal vertebrae, which also led to the scientific name that has been derived from the Greek terms "masson"/μάσσων 'longer' and "spondylos"/σπόνδυλος 'vertebra', explained by Owen as "because the vertebrae are proportionally longer than those of the extinct Crocodile called "Macrospondylus"". However, later it was shown that the putative caudal vertebrae of "Massospondylus" were actually cervical vertebrae and that all the material probably belongs only to a single species.
Massospondylus | History of discovery
Massospondylus ( ; from Greek, (massōn, "longer") and (spondylos, "vertebra")) is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Period (Hettangian to Pliensbachian ages, ca. 200–183 million years ago). It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains discovered in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named. Fossils have since been found at other locations in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Material from Arizona's Kayenta Formation, India, and Argentina has been assigned to this genus at various times, but the Arizonan and Argentinian material are now assigned to other genera.
Massospondylus | Introduction
Several genera have been previously synonymized with "Massospondylus". These include the above-mentioned "Leptospondylus" and "Pachyspondylus", as well as "Aristosaurus", "Dromicosaurus", "Gryponyx taylori" and "Hortalotarsus", which are dubious names of little scientific value. Together with "Massospondylus carinatus", Owen named "Leptospondylus capensis" and "Pachyspondylus orpenii" for vertebrae from the same unit and location. "Aristosaurus erectus" was named by E.C.N. van Hoepen in 1920 based on a nearly complete skeleton, and Hoepen also named "Dromicosaurus gracilis", which consisted of a partial skeleton. "Gryponyx taylori" was named by Sidney H. Haughton in 1924. It consists of hip bones. All of the above fossils come from the Hettangian or Sinemurian faunal stages of South Africa, where "Massospondylus" has been found.
Massospondylus | Dubious names
The present individuals probably represented juveniles as indicated by small size and open bone sutures. From detailed features the describers concluded these were not juveniles of either "Aardonyx" or "Massospondylus".
Arcusaurus | Discovery
Many species have been named, although most are no longer considered valid. "M. carinatus", named by Richard Owen, is the type species. Other named species include: "M. browni" Seeley, 1895, "M. harriesi" Broom 1911, "M. hislopi" Lydekker, 1890, "M. huenei" Cooper, 1981, "M. kaalae" Barrett 2009, "M. rawesi" Lydekker, 1890, and "M. schwarzi" Haughton, 1924. "M. browni", "M. harriesi", and "M. schwarzi" were all found in the Upper Elliot Formation of Cape Province, South Africa. All three are based on fragmentary material, and were regarded as indeterminate in the most recent review. "M. browni" is based on two cervical, two back, and three caudal vertebrae and miscellaneous hind limb elements.
Massospondylus | Species
In 1905 and 1906 Baron Franz Nopcsa reassigned the skeleton to the species, "Streptospondylus cuvieri", which had been first described by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, based on a now lost vertebra from the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic period. The reason for this assignment was that the type species "Streptospondylus altdorfensis" from France, was a clearly related form, and Nopcsa decided to subsume all British material of this nature under a single "Streptospondylus" species, for which then the name "S. cuvieri" could not be avoided. The assignment of a rather complete find to a species based on very poor remains was troublesome.
Eustreptospondylus | Discovery and naming
In 1976, a clutch of seven 190-million-year-old "Massospondylus" eggs was found in Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa by James Kitching, who identified them as most likely belonging to "Massospondylus". It was nearly 30 years before extraction was started on the fossils of the 15-centimetre- (6 in-) long embryos. They remain the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found. By early 2012, at least 10 egg clutches from at least four fossiliferous horizons had been found, with up to 34 eggs per clutch. This indicates that this nesting site may have been used repeatedly (site fidelity), by groups of animals (colonial nesting); in both cases, these represent the oldest evidence of this behaviour.
Massospondylus | Reproduction
The neck was short, contrasting to the very long neck in the adults. Girdle bones and caudals were relatively tiny. The forelimbs were of equal length to the hindlimbs, indicating that newly hatched "Massospondylus" were quadrupedal, unlike the bipedal adults. The discovery of hatching footprints with manus impressions confirmed their quadrupedality. These impressions show that the hand was not pronated, with palm faces facing each other and the thumb facing forwards. The unpronated manus and the big head indicate that an effective locomotion was not possible for newly hatched "Massospondylus". Notably, the near-hatchings had no teeth, suggesting they had no way of feeding themselves.
Massospondylus | Reproduction
According to Warren, there were at least five specimens collected at the site, ranging in all sizes. The diversity of sizes indicated that the collection consisted of adults as well as juveniles.
Ossinodus | History and Discovery
In later years, fossils were also found from Pakistan and Myanmar.
Crocodylus palaeindicus | History
The generic name is a contraction of "Thecospondylus" and "Coelurus". The holotype, NHMUK PV R181, was found in debris from a layer of the Wessex Formation, dating from the Barremian. It consists of the anterior end, about a third, of a cervical vertebra estimated by Seeley to have been nine centimetres long.
Thecocoelurus | Discovery and naming
However, newer finds revealed a diverse contemporary sauropodomorph fauna with six additional species, including "Ignavusaurus", "Arcusaurus" and two unnamed taxa as well as two unnamed sauropods. It is not clear which carnivores may have preyed on "Massospondylus". Most of the theropods that have been discovered in rocks of Early Jurassic age in southern Africa, such as "Coelophysis", were smaller than mid-sized sauropodomorphs like "Massospondylus". These smaller predators have been postulated as using fast slashing attacks to wear down sauropodomorphs, which could have defended themselves with their large hand and foot claws. The 6-metre-(20 ft-) long carnivorous theropod "Dracovenator" lived during the same period (Hettangian to Sinemurian stages) as "Massospondylus" and has also been found in the Elliot Formation of South Africa.
Massospondylus | Paleoecology
In the early twenty-first century a new display changed this to a horizontal position of the body.
Eustreptospondylus | Discovery and naming
Massaliasuchus is an extinct genus of allodaposuchid crocodylian that is known from fossils found in Santonian–Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous rocks of southeastern France.
Massaliasuchus | Introduction
Teeth closer to the front of the snout had round cross-sections and tapered to points, unlike the back teeth, which were spatulate and had oval cross-sections. As with other early sauropodomorphs, it has been proposed that "Massospondylus" had cheeks. This theory was proposed because there are a few large holes for blood vessels on the surfaces of the jaw bones, unlike the numerous small holes present on the jaws of cheekless reptiles. The cheeks would have prevented food from spilling out when "Massospondylus" ate. Crompton and Attridge (1986) described skulls of "Massospondylus" as possessing pronounced overbites and suggested the presence of a horny beak on the tip of the lower jaw to make up the difference in length and account for tooth wear on the teeth at the tip of the snout.
Massospondylus | Cranial anatomy
"Bathyspondylus" lived during the Kimmeridgian faunal stage of the Jurassic period, which occurred roughly 155 to 150 million years ago. The first of its fossils came from deposits near Swindon in Wiltshire, England.
Bathyspondylus | Distribution
Earlier in 2011, "Pradhania", a sauropodomorph from India, was tested for the first time in a large cladistic analysis and was found to be a relatively basal massospondylid. "Mussaurus" and "Xixiposaurus" may also be included within Massospondylidae. In 2019, a specimen previously assigned to "Massospondylus" from South Africa was re-examined and found to belong to a separate genus that was named "Ngwevu".
Massospondylidae | Introduction
"Thecocoelurus" is known only from half of a single cervical vertebra, discovered by the Rev. William Darwin Fox on the Isle of Wight during the 19th century. After his death the "Fox Collection" was acquired by the British Museum of Natural History. William Davies was the first to notice the specimen and assumed a close affinity with "Coelurus". It was described by Harry Govier Seeley in 1888. Seeley named the fossil "Thecospondylus daviesi", referring it to a genus he had named earlier for the incomplete cast of a sacrum. However, in 1901 Baron Franz Nopcsa renamed it "Coelurus daviesi". In 1923 Friedrich von Huene decided that it should be removed from either "Thecospondylus" or "Coelurus" and given its own genus, "Thecocoelurus".
Thecocoelurus | Discovery and naming
Smith and Pol (2007) also found a Massospondylidae in their phylogenetic analysis, including "Massospondylus", "Coloradisaurus", and "Lufengosaurus", as well as their new genus, "Glacialisaurus". "Adeopapposaurus", based on the fossils once thought to belong to a South American form of "Massospondylus", was also classified as a massospondylid, as was "Leyesaurus", another South American genus that was named in 2011. "Pradhania" was originally regarded as a more basal sauropodomorph but new cladistic analysis performed by Novas "et al.", 2011 suggests that "Pradhania" is a massospondylid. "Pradhania" presents two shared traits of the Massospondylidae recovered in their phylogenetic analysis, and the fossils of "Pradhania" were discovered from the same region and basin in India as "M.
Massospondylus | Classification
Under the rules of zoological nomenclature, these names are junior synonyms. They were named after "Massospondylus" was described in a scientific paper; the name "Massospondylus" thus takes priority. "Ignavusaurus", known from a young specimen, was considered by Yates et al. (2011) to be a probable synonym of "Massospondylus". Cladistic analyses by Chapelle & Choiniere (2018) and Chapelle et al. (2019) agreed with Yates et al. (2011) in demonstrating the massospondylid nature of "Ignavusaurus", but nevertheless recovered it as a distinct taxon of massospondylid.
Massospondylus | Dubious names
Boynton. The discovery has been called "the most prized specimen" in Mount Holyoke College's geological museum. It's also been regarded as the last major find in the "Connecticut Valley 'bone rush'". That December, Talbot gave a presentation to the Paleontological Society about her dinosaur discovery in South Hadley. She interpreted the skeleton as belonging to an herbivore. The next year Mignon Talbot collaborated with Richard Swann Lull collaborated on a description for the recently discovered dinosaur at South Hadley. They correct Talbot's previous misidentification of the specimen as an herbivore and reclassify it as a theropod. They named it Podokesaurus holyokensis.
Paleontology in Massachusetts | Scientific research
hislopi". The following cladogram shows the position of "Massospondylus" within Massospondylidae, according to Fernando E. Novas and colleagues, 2011:
Massospondylus | Classification
Massospondylidae is a family of early massopod dinosaurs that existed in Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Antarctica during the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic periods. Several dinosaurs have been classified as massospondylids over the years. The largest cladistic analysis of early sauropodomorphs, which was presented by Apaldetti and colleagues in November 2011, found "Adeopapposaurus", "Coloradisaurus", "Glacialisaurus", "Massospondylus", "Leyesaurus" and "Lufengosaurus" to be massospondylids. This result supports many previous analyses that tested fewer taxa. However, this analysis found the two recently described North American massopods, "Sarahsaurus" and "Seitaad", and the South African "Ignavusaurus" to nest outside Massospondylidae, as opposed to some provisional proposals.
Massospondylidae | Introduction
It was probably a plant eater (herbivore), although it is speculated that the early sauropodomorphs may have been omnivorous. This animal, which was long, had a long neck and tail, with a small head and slender body. On each of its forefeet, it bore a sharp thumb claw that was used in defense or feeding. Recent studies indicate that "Massospondylus" grew steadily throughout its lifespan, possessed air sacs similar to those of birds, and may have cared for its young.
Massospondylus | Introduction
As with all dinosaurs, much of the biology of "Massospondylus", including its behavior, coloration, and physiology, remains unknown. However, recent studies have allowed for informed speculation on subjects such as growth patterns, diet, posture, reproduction, and respiration. A 2007 study suggested that "Massospondylus" may have used its short arms for defense against predators ("defensive swats"), in intraspecies combat, or in feeding, although its arms were too short to reach its mouth. Scientists speculate that "Massospondylus" could have used its large pollex (thumb) claw in combat, to strip plant material from trees, digging, or for grooming.
Massospondylus | Paleobiology
The type species, "Hortalotarsus skirtopodus" was named by Harry Seeley in 1894. According to Broom (1911), "Originally most of the skeleton was in the rock, and it was regarded by the farmers as the skeleton of a Bushman, but it is said to have been destroyed through fear that a Bushman skeleton in the rock might tend to weaken the religious belief of the rising generation." Seeley however, states that most of the skeleton was lost by a failed attempt to free it from the rock by using gunpowder. Some partial leg bones were salvaged. "Hortalotarsus" was subsequently regarded as either a synonym of "Massospondylus" or a valid genus belonging to Anchisauridae.
Hortalotarsus | Discovery and naming
Sedimentary structures indicate that the nesting area was in the vicinity of a lake. The eggshells were very thin (about 0.1 mm), allowing gas exchange even in a low oxygen and carbon dioxide rich environment, which indicates that the eggs were at least partly buried in the substrate. There are no hints that "Massospondylus" constructed nests; however, the arrangement of the eggs in tight rows indicates that the eggs were pushed in this position by the adults. The embryos probably represented near-hatchlings. While the skeletal features were similar to those of the adults, the body proportions were very dissimilar. The head was big with a short snout and very large orbits, whose diameter amounts 39% of the entire skull length.
Massospondylus | Reproduction
The remaining specimens were catalogued in fifty separate entries at Yale's Peabody Museum although they could have been from as few as three individuals.
Deinonychus | Discovery and naming
The type and referred specimens of "Plesiosuchus" were discovered by John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell in the 1860s alongside the remains of several other large-bodied marine reptiles along the coast of Dorset. Mansel-Pleydell gave these remains to the British Museum (now in the Natural History Museum) in 1866. Part of the holotype of "P. manselii" (NHMUK PV OR40103a) was first described by John Hulke in 1869. He referred it to "Steneosaurus rostro-minor" Geoffroy (1825), alongside "Dakosaurus maximus" and other specimens. Initially, the skull (NHMUK PV OR40103) was believed to be pliosaurian; it was the preparator Mr Davies that suggested a crocodylian nature for the skull.
Plesiosuchus | Discovery
"Myotragus balearicus" was first excavated and identified in Majorca in 1909 by the archaeozoologist Dorothea Bate.
Myotragus | Discovery
"Massospondylus" was a mid-size sauropodomorph, around in length and weighed approximately 1000 kilograms (2200 lb), although a few sources have estimated its length at up to . It was a typical early sauropodomorph, with a slender body, a long neck and a proportionally very small head. The vertebral column was composed of nine cervical (neck) vertebrae, 13 dorsal (back) vertebrae, three sacral (hip) vertebrae, and at least 40 caudal (tail) vertebrae. The pubis faced forward, as with most saurischians. It had a slighter build than that of "Plateosaurus", an otherwise similar dinosaur. The neck was proportionally longer than in most other plateosaurids, with the foremost cervicals being four times the length of their width.
Massospondylus | Description
The type species is "M. carinatus"; seven other species have been named during the past 150 years, but only "M. kaalae" among these is still considered valid. Early sauropodomorphs systematics have undergone numerous revisions during the last several years, and many scientists disagree where exactly "Massospondylus" lies on the dinosaur evolutionary tree. The family name Massospondylidae was once coined for the genus, but because knowledge of early sauropodomorph relationships is in a state of flux, it is unclear which other dinosaurs—if any—belong in a natural grouping of massospondylids; several 2007 papers support the family's validity. Although "Massospondylus" was long depicted as quadrupedal, a 2007 study found it to be bipedal.
Massospondylus | Introduction
Massospondylidae, which was first named by Huene in 1914, is a stem-based taxon. It was defined by Sereno as all animals more closely related to "Massospondylus carinatus" than to "Plateosaurus engelhardti" and "Saltasaurus loricatus". The following simplified cladogram is based on an analysis presented by Chappel and colleagues in 2019. Below is a simplified cladogram after Müller, 2019.
Massospondylidae | Phylogeny
The holotype, OUM J13558, was recovered by W. Parker from claystone in a marine layer of the Stewartby Member of the Oxford Clay Formation, which dates to the Callovian stage of the Jurassic period, approximately 162 million years ago. It consists of a rather complete skeleton, with a skull which is missing elements including the nasal bones, the jugals, the rear ends of the lower jaws, the lower arms and the end of the tail. It represents a subadult individual. The only other specimen ever referred to "Eustreptospondylus oxoniensis" is OUMNH J.29775, a left ilium. The holotype was fully prepared and exhibited in 1924, in a rather erect position.
Eustreptospondylus | Discovery and naming
Another, less complete, skeleton was also found in 2002, in the cliffs at Filey, Yorkshire, England, by an amateur palaeontologist. The preserved skeleton is displayed at Rotunda Museum in Scarborough.
Plesiosauroidea | History of discovery
"Hoplolaimus galeatus" was discovered by Nathan Cobb in 1913, originally named "Nemochus galeatus". In 1935 "Nemochus galeatus" was reclassified as "Hoplolaimus galeatus" and described, in detail, by Thorne.,
Hoplolaimus galeatus | History
Jonah Choiniere, an old PhD student of Clark, leads this research lab. The remains of the holotype currently remain stored at the Evolutionary Studies Institute.
Litargosuchus | History of Discovery
Fossil specimens referrable to "Metriorhynchus" are known from Middle-Late Jurassic deposits of England, France and Germany.
Metriorhynchus | Discovery and species
In 1988 James Kitching found the holotype fossil of "Litargosuchus" in a field expedition in Eagles Crag, a farm near Barkly East in the Eastern Cape. The material recovered consisted of a near-complete skull with its mandible and several bones belonging to the postcranial skeleton. At the time, Kitching was the director of the Evolutionary Studies Institute (previously the Bernard Price Institute) of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Kitching brought the holotype fossil back to the institute where he described it with fellow researcher, Christopher Gow. Together Kitching and Gow unfortunately misidentified this new species of sphenosuchian crocodylomorph and assigned the fossils to an existing crocodylomorph species, "Pedeticosaurus leviseuri".
Litargosuchus | History of Discovery
Bathyspondylus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur. It was first described in 1982 from a specimen originally found in 1774, now housed at the Devizes Museum. Because it is known only from its fossil vertebrae (and so few of those have been recovered), paleontologists are not entirely sure of the taxonomy of "Bathyspondylus"; the family it belongs to is not currently known. The type, and only known, species is B. swindoniensis, which was described from the same material as its genus.
Bathyspondylus | Introduction
These remains consist of at least 80 partial skeletons and four skulls, representing both juveniles and adults. The report of "Massospondylus" from Arizona's Kayenta Formation is based on a skull described in 1985. The skull of the Kayenta specimen from Arizona is 25% larger than the largest skull from any African specimen. The Kayenta specimen possesses four teeth in the premaxilla and sixteen in the maxilla. Uniquely among dinosaurs, it also had tiny, one-millimetre-(0.04 in-) long palatal teeth. A 2004 restudy of African "Massospondylus" skulls, however, indicated that the Kayenta specimen did not pertain to "Massospondylus". This Kayenta skull and associated postcranial elements, identified collectively as MCZ 8893, was referred to the new genus "Sarahsaurus" in 2010.
Massospondylus | History of discovery
In 1910, the American geologist Mignon Talbot was walking with her sister Ellen to Holyoke, Massachusetts, when they passed a farm and noticed a small hill nearby. It had a gravel pit at one side, and was formed by an accumulation of sand, gravel, and boulders left by a receding glacier. Talbot noticed a white streak on a sandstone boulder at the bottom of the gravel pit, and upon discovering these were bones, she told her sister she had found a "real live fossil", since many fossil tracks had previously been discovered in the Connecticut Valley (which she had often taken her students to see), but few actual dinosaur skeletons, and none at Mount Holyoke.
Podokesaurus | Discovery
A cast of the holotype, MN 4711-V, is housed at the National Museum of Brazil. MCT 1730-R was discovered during the exploration of the São José de Itaboraí Basin, located in Rio de Janeiro State, that lasted for about five decades and ended in 1984. It was collected from São José Farm, of São José de Itaboraí Municipal District, in the S2 sequence of the Itaboraí Formation in the Itaboraí Basin, dating to the late Itaboraian South American land mammals age of the Early Eocene, about 53-50 million years ago. MCT 1730-R was briefly mentioned in the literature by Price and Paula-Couto (1946) and later in 1991 and 1993, but had never been figured or described before Kellner "et al." (2014) assigned it to a new genus and species.
Sahitisuchus | Discovery
Palaeospondylus gunni (Gunn's ancient vertebrae) is a mysterious, fish-like fossil vertebrate. Its fossils are described from Achanarras slate quarry in Caithness, Scotland. The fossil as preserved is carbonized, and indicates an eel-shaped animal up to in length. The skull, which must have consisted of hardened cartilage, exhibits pairs of nasal and auditory capsules, with a gill apparatus below its hinder part, and ambiguous indications of ordinary jaws. The phylogeny of this bizarre fossil has puzzled scientists since its discovery in 1890, and many taxonomies have been suggested. In 2004, researchers proposed that "Palaeospondylus" was a larval lungfish. Previously, it had been classified as a larval tetrapod, unarmored placoderm, an agnathan, an early stem hagfish, and a chimera.
Palaeospondylus | Introduction
This synonymy is no longer accepted. "M. kaalae" was described in 2009 on the basis of a partial skull from the Upper Elliot Formation in Eastern Cape of South Africa. This species is known from the same time and region as some specimens of "M. carinatus". It differs from the type species in the morphology of the braincase, as well as in several other characters of the skull such as the proportions of the premaxilla.
Massospondylus | Species
The specific name honours the researchers who discovered the holotype.
Arenysuchus | Introduction
"M. harriesi" is known from a well-preserved forelimb and parts of a hindlimb. "M. schwarzi" is known from an incomplete hind limb and sacrum. "M. hislopi" and "M. rawesi" were named from fossils found in India. "M. hislopi" is based on vertebrae from the Upper Triassic Maleri Formation of Andhra Pradesh, whereas "M. rawesi" is based on a tooth from the Upper Cretaceous Takli Formation of Maharashtra. "M. hislopi" was tentatively retained as an indeterminate sauropodomorph in the latest review, but "M. rawesi" may be a theropod or nondinosaur. "M. huenei" is a combination derived by Cooper for "Lufengosaurus huenei", as he considered "Lufengosaurus" and "Massospondylus" to be synonyms.
Massospondylus | Species
Although its mass suggests a quadrupedal nature, "Massospondylus" would have been restricted to its hind legs for locomotion. Since the discovery of rudimentary and nonfunctional clavicles in ceratopsians, it was assumed that these shoulder bones were reduced in all dinosaurs that did not have true furculae. Robert Bakker (1987) suggested that this would have allowed the shoulder blades to swing with the forelimbs in quadrupedal dinosaurs, increasing their functional forelimb length. This would have reduced the discrepancy of length between fore- and hindlimbs in a quadrupedal "Massospondylus". However, a recent discovery shows that "Massospondylus" possessed well-developed clavicles that were joined in a furcula-like arrangement, acting like a clasp between the right and left shoulder blades and prohibiting any rotation of these bones.
Massospondylus | Gait and range of motion
This discovery indicates that the clavicle reduction is limited to the evolutionary line leading to the ceratopsians. It also indicates that the furcula of birds is derived from clavicles. Michael Cooper (1981) noted that the zygapophyses of the neck vertebrae were inclined, prohibiting significant horizontal movement of the neck, so that "consequently any significant movement in this direction must have been accomplished by a change in the position of the entire body". This was contradicted in a recent study, noting that only the basalmost cervicals show inclined zygapophyses, allowing sufficient horizontal movement of the neck as a whole.
Massospondylus | Gait and range of motion
The majority of specimens, however, are held privately and thus are not available for research.
Confuciusornis | History of discovery
Stacked skeletons from these bone beds were removed from the field in blocks jacketed by plaster and encased in crates. A resin cast of block TBB 2001 was made (including the crocodyliform specimen), making it available for study after the specimens had been extracted from the original matrix. The crocodyliform specimen from this block and the associated "Limusaurus" specimens are mounted in a cast of the block in its semi-prepared state. When "Limusaurus" was described in 2009 by paleontologist Xu Xing and colleagues, the crocodlyliform specimen was briefly mentioned during a short footnote - no genus name was given. It has not been described since.
Upper Shishugou crocodyliform | History
Prionosuchus is an extinct genus of large temnospondyl. A single species, "P. plummeri," is recognized from the early Permian period (some time between 299 and 272 million years ago). Its fossils have been found in what is now northeastern Brazil.
Prionosuchus | Introduction
becklesii", specimen NHMUK R1869, but its large size precludes its belonging to the holotype.
Haestasaurus | History of discovery and naming
The missing jaws may be specimen CAMMZ T706, which was recognised in 1982 by the English palaeontologist Jenny A. Clack, but had no documented history prior to the mid-1960s. In 1913, the British amateur palaeontologist Reginald W. Hooley described two more specimens of "O. latidens", collected from the sea after a rockfall near Atherfield Point on the Isle of Wight in 1904. The first of these, NHMUK R3877, was collected as three blocks and consists of a skull, neck and trunk vertebrae, a shoulder blade, an ischium, and parts of the forelimbs. The second specimen, NHMUK R3878, was collected in one block, and includes parts of the pectoral girdle and forelimbs.
Istiodactylus | History of discovery
Numerous female tube worms were observed but no males were seen.
Osedax japonicus | Discovery
In 2000, Olshevsky renamed "Troodon isfarensis" Nessov 1995 into "Saurornithoides isfarensis". In 2007, this was shown to have been a hadrosaurid fossil.
Saurornithoides | History of discovery
The size difference is also considerably greater between the two than that expected in sex differences which gave Romer another reason to believe that they were dealing with two species of a single genus.
Massetognathus | Discovery
Specimen NHMUK R176 had been assigned to the species "Ornithocheirus nobilis" by the English naturalist Richard Lydekker in 1888, but Seeley considered it another species of the genus "Ornithodesmus", which he now considered pterosaurian. Seeley named the new species "O. latidens"; "latus" is Latin for "wide" and "dens" means "tooth", a name originally used by Fox and his friends. Seeley presumably assigned the new species to the existing genus due to similarities between their sacra, but with little explanation. Specimen NHMUK R176 is a poorly preserved skeleton consisting of the back of the skull, a neck vertebra, the sternum, the sacrum, the right humerus, the notarium, the left humerus, part of the radius and ulna, carpals, metacarpals, and wing phalanx bones.
Istiodactylus | History of discovery
The type species, "Aristosuchus pusillus", was described in 1876 by Richard Owen and named "Poekilopleuron pusillus". The specific epithet means "small" in Latin. Harry Govier Seeley (1839–1909) gave it the name "Aristosuchus" in 1887. It was found in the Wealden Group dating to the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) in England, on the Isle of Wight, i.e. from about 125 million years ago.
Aristosuchus | Discovery
Eustreptospondylus ( ; meaning "true "Streptospondylus"") is a genus of megalosaurid theropod dinosaur, from the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic period (some time between 163 and 154 million years ago) in southern England, at a time when Europe was a series of scattered islands (due to tectonic movement at the time which raised the sea-bed and flooded the lowland).
Eustreptospondylus | Introduction
"Haptodus garnettensis" was named based on the holotype RM 14156, a partially articulated skeleton (cranial and postcranial) of an immature individual. More than 16 well-preserved specimen of various ontogenetic stages were referred to this species. All specimens came from the Garnett Quarry, located in the Anderson County of Kansas. They were collected from the Rock Lake Member of the Stanton Formation (Lansing Group), dating to the late Kasimovian stage of the late Pennsylvanian series, about 305-303.9 million years old. Another species, "Haptodus grandis", was named from a maxilla (Gz 1071) found in Pennsylvanian to Cisuralian deposits in Kenilworth, England by Roberta Paton in 1974.
Haptodus | Other species
Hypselohaptodus is a genus of sphenacodont synapsid from the Cisuralian of England. It contains a single species, Hypselohaptodus grandis, and is known only from a single specimen, a partial left maxilla, which is hosted at the Warwick County Museum. It was collected at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, from the Kenilworth Sandstone Formation (Warwickshire Group), dating to the earliest Asselian stage of the Cisuralian series, about 299 million years ago. "H. grandis" was originally assigned to "Haptodus" by Paton in 1974. In 2015 it was determined that "H. grandis" and "Haptodus garnettensis" were not congeneric with "Haptodus baylei" and in 2019 reassigned "H.
Hypselohaptodus | Introduction
1830 Isaac Hays described a new species of fossil fish from the Cretaceous of New Jersey that he named "Saurodon leanus". The new find by Hays was similar enough to the purported marine reptile "Saurocephalus lanciformis" discovered in Iowa during the Lewis and Clark expedition that he realized "Saurocephalus" had been misidentified and was actually a fish. Another significant event occurred around 1838, when workers excavating marl for fertilizer on land owned by John E. Hopkins uncovered some Late Cretaceous bones. The remains were mostly vertebrae but also included a possible shoulder blade. Hopkins wasn't especially interested in the bones and allowed some guests to take away all of the bones.
Paleontology in New Jersey | Scientific research
The type species "Orthomerus dolloi" was in 1883 named by the well-known British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley. The genus name is derived from the Greek ὀρθός ("orthos"), "straight", and μηρός ("meros"), "thigh". The specific name honours the French/Belgian paleontologist Louis Dollo, who had identified the bones in August 1882, during a visit to London. The type specimen, formed by the syntypes BMNH 42954-57, was probably found in the chalkstone quarries of the Sint-Pietersberg near the city of Maastricht, The Netherlands. It mainly consists of partial juvenile skeletal elements. These remains are from the Maastricht Formation of the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, about 66 million years old.
Orthomerus | Discovery and history
However, the difference in length may be a misinterpretation based on crushing in a top–bottom plane, and the possession of a beak is considered unlikely in recent studies.
Massospondylus | Cranial anatomy
The first known specimen was collected in 1977 from the Ichibangawa Formation in Tobetsu Town on the island of Hokkaido. The specimen consists of a partial skull, vertebrae, and limb bones, and was made the holotype specimen of the new genus and species A. akamatsui by the Japanese palaeontologists Yoshihiro Tanaka and Naoki Kohno in 2015. The generic name consists of "archaio-", the Greek word for ancient, and the generic name of the walrus, "Odobenus"; in full, "ancient walrus." The specific name honors Morio Akamatsu, a curator of the Hokkaido Museum. The holotype specimen appears to have been a young adult male of about 3 metres (10 ft) in length, which would have weighed around 473 kg (1,042 lb).
Archaeodobenus | Discovery
Among known fossil specimens, approximately 66% are known from only cranial remains. "Acrotholus"' discovery further implicates the diversity of small bodied dinosaurs which may not have survived the fossil record, suggesting a much more complex ecology in the late Mesozoic era. A similar conclusion have been made with Asian species of pachycephalosaurs, with their ontogeny under debate due to their flat domed shapes.
Acrotholus | History of discovery
The "Arizona Republic" newspaper, however, was first to announce the name on 19 June 2001, in a column by R.E. Molnar. The generic name, "Nothronychus", is derived from Greek νωθρός (nothros, meaning slothful) and ὄνυξ (onyx, meaning claw). The specific name, "mckinleyi", honours rancher Bobby McKinley on whose land the fossil findings were made. The holotype, specimen MSM P2106, consists of very sparse skull fragments, a braincase, some vertebrae and parts of the shoulder girdle, forelimbs, pelvis and hindlimbs. A second, more complete specimen, UMNH VP 16420, was discovered from the Tropic Shale Formation (dating to the early Turonian stage) of southern Utah in 2000 by Merle Graffam, a resident of Big Water, Utah.
Nothronychus | History of discovery
"Georgiacetus" was discovered in 1983 during the construction of the nuclear power plant Plant Vogtle in Burke County, Georgia (in the Lutetian Blue Bluff Formation, , paleocoordinates ). The find consisted of three individuals all identified as belonging to the same species; two of the individuals were represented by isolated bones recovered separately which included a few vertebrae, ribs and tooth crowns. The main find was discovered during the cutting of a drainage channel at a depth of about below the surface. It was a 75%-80% complete individual consisting of more than 60 bones and teeth; including a well-preserved skull and mandible.
Georgiacetus | Discovery
"Anomocephalus" was collected from a locality near Williston at the base of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin, which is located within the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It was discovered during the continued program of B. Rubidge to determine the lateral extent of the "Eodicynodon" (an extinct dicynodont therapsid) Assemblage Zone. It was first described by Modesto in 1999 and is known only by a partial skull with distinctive dentition and was preserved in hard mud rock. The discovery of "Anomocephalus" and its phylogenetic position provided compelling evidence that anomodonts initially diversified in Gondwana. This conflicts with previous suggestions that anomodonts were freely dispersing between the northern and southern regions of the Late Permian Pangea or that therapsids first evolved in Euramerica and then moved to Gondwana when climate became favorable.
Anomocephalus | History and discovery
In 1851, James Scott Bowerbank named and described some remains found in a chalk pit at Burham near Maidstone in Kent, as a new species of "Pterodactylus": "Pterodactylus cuvieri". The specific name honors Georges Cuvier. The same pit had generated remains of "Pterodactylus giganteus". In 1869, Harry Govier Seeley renamed the species into "Ptenodactylus cuvieri", at the same time disclaiming the name which makes it invalid by modern standards. In 1870, Seeley had realised that the generic name "Ptenodactylus" had been preoccupied and renamed the species into "Ornithocheirus cuvieri". In 1874, Richard Owen renamed it into "Coloborhynchus cuvieri"; in 2001, David Unwin considered it as a species of "Anhanguera": "A.
Cimoliopterus | History of discovery
Marmarospondylus ("marble [reference to the Forest Marble Formation] vertebra") is a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur from Middle Jurassic deposits in the English Midlands. The type species, "Marmarospondylus robustus", was described by Richard Owen as a species of the Late Jurassic genus "Bothriospondylus" in 1875. The holotype, NHMUK R.22428, a dorsal, was found in the Bathonian-age Forest Marble Formation at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. Owen himself in an addendum to the same publication coined "Marmarospondylus" for "B. robustus", presumably due to its being older than "B. suffosus". Recent publications have treated "Marmarospondylus" as a dubious member of Macronaria.
Marmarospondylus | Introduction
The skeleton was wall-mounted in bas relief, with the tail curved upwards, the neck straightened, and the left leg moved up for visibility, but the rest of the skeleton was kept in its burial position. As the skull was crushed, it was reconstructed based on the back of the skull of the first specimen and the front of the second. The pelvis was reconstructed after that of "Allosaurus", and the feet were also reconstructed. At the time, it was one of the best-preserved skeletons of a theropod dinosaur, though incomplete. In 1954, the paleontologist Samuel P. Welles, who was part of the group who excavated the skeletons, preliminarily described and named this dinosaur as a new species in the existing genus "Megalosaurus", "M.
Dilophosaurus | History of discovery
wetherilli". The nearly complete specimen (catalogued as UCMP 37302) was made the holotype of the species, and the second specimen (UCMP 37303) was made the paratype. The specific name honored John Wetherill, a Navajo councilor whom Welles described as an "explorer, friend of scientists, and trusted trader". Wetherill's nephew, Milton, had first informed the expedition of the fossils. Welles placed the new species in "Megalosaurus" due to the similar limb proportions of it and "M. bucklandii", and because he did not find great differences between them. At the time, "Megalosaurus" was used as a "wastebasket taxon", wherein many species of theropods were placed, regardless of their age or locality.
Dilophosaurus | History of discovery
Haughton also described a species which he named "Stenaulorhynchus major," which he said differed primarily in size, based on a distal left and right humerus fragments. Those specimens were later identified as "Stagonosuchus nyassicus", a suchian archosaur from the same locality and horizon.
Stenaulorhynchus | Discovery
The original remains were found in Dorset, England and were destroyed during World War II, leaving only plaster casts of the remains to be studied. At first the animal was thought to be another "Plesiosaurus" species but after studies on the plaster casts made after the remains, it was assigned to a new genus.
Attenborosaurus | History
The fragmentary remains of this animal have been found in the Pedra do Fogo Formation in the Parnaíba Basin of Northeastern Brazil, and it was described by L.I. Price in 1948. The incomplete skull of the holotype specimen has been estimated to be long. Several more fragmentary specimens have been found. One very fragmentary but very large specimen (BMNH R12005) appears to have come from an individual nearly three times the size of most other specimens, and may have had a skull that measured up to long. Based on related species, the total body length of this specimen has been estimated at about , making it the largest known species of temnospondyl.
Prionosuchus | Description
In 1995 William Blows restricted "Ornithopsis" to NHMUK R.28632, assigning other vertebrae referred to the genus to "Eucamerotus" and agreeing with Hulke (1879) the "Bothriospondylus elongatus" holotype was older than the "Ornithopsis" lectotype and not conspecific.
Ornithopsis | History of discovery
Its fossils have been discovered in Florida, Nebraska, and Oregon.
Oligobunis | Introduction
The forelimbs were only half the length of the hindlimbs but quite powerful, as indicated by the broad upper end of the humerus that provided attachment areas for a large arm musculature. Like "Plateosaurus", it had five digits on each hand and foot. The hand was short and wide, with a large sickle shaped thumb claw used for feeding or defense against predators. The thumb was the longest finger in the hand, while the fourth and fifth digits were tiny, giving the forepaws a lopsided look.
Massospondylus | Description
It contains a series of five anterior tail vertebrae and a complete right foot connected to an astragalus. It was recovered on a distance of 403 metres to the holotype from a surface of five by five metres.
Notocolossus | Discovery and naming
Though Seeley did not designate a holotype specimen for "O. latidens", he described and illustrated parts of NHMUK R176, which makes the 1901 naming valid according to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, and the specimen is considered the holotype today. Later researchers have been mystified by the fact that Seeley described the jaws and teeth of "O. latidens" and named it after the latter, when the only specimen available in 1901, NHMUK R176, does not appear to have had these elements. Only the back of the skull was listed as present by Lydekker in 1888, but it was rumoured that a set of jaws had been lost from Fox's collection, so it is possible that Seeley had examined them prior to this.
Istiodactylus | History of discovery
In 1858, the paleontologist Joseph Leidy described a new species of cat, "Felis intrepidus", based on lower jaw fragments (a left ramus, described, and a right ramus, mentioned only and now lost) found somewhere in Nebraska near the Niobrara river. The fragments were later determined to have come from the lower Valentine Formation, making them late Barstovian in age. Leidy reassigned the specimens to "Pseudaelurus" as "Pseudaelurus intrepidus" in a 1869 paper. In 1873, an expedition collected another lower jaw from the lower Valentine Formation, which was described by Thorpe in 1922 as the holotype of the new species "Pseudaelurus marshi".
Hyperailurictis | Taxonomic history
The specimen is currently known from the aforementioned skull, both a right and left humerus, a left ulna, two thoracic vertebrae, a complete rib and three rib fragments. There is apparently more of the specimen left in-situ in the cave. The age of the specimen was found to be approximately 17,300 Cal BP
Megistonyx | History of discovery
Salter convinced Dawson that fossils of "S. formosus" actually were fragmentary remains of a eurypterid, as confirmed by further findings. Dawson reclassified it as a eurypterid in 1871. Kjellesvig-Waering in 1964 assigned it as a questionable species of "Pterygotus".
Pterygotus | Discoveries in North America
In 1982, amateur palaeontologist José María Herrero Marzo together with his son Jesús uncovered in a loam pit near Galve, the "Poyales Barranco Canales" site, the remains of a small euornithopod. In 1987 from this material by José Luis Sanz a left femur and ilium were described, which he referred to "Hypsilophodon foxii". In 1995 José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca realised the find represented a separate taxon, after he had further prepared the bones in 1994 and 1995. Ruiz-Omeñaca continued his studies from 1996, as part of his thesis. In 2001 he published a more detailed and complete description, in 2004 reaffirming that a new species had been discovered.
Gideonmantellia | Discovery and naming
Fossils of giant tortoises and a variety of small burrowing mammals have been found in the same deposits.
Crocodylus gariepensis | Introduction
The holotype consists only of a set of deformed paired lower jaws forming the mandible.
Ordosipterus | Discovery and naming
With the agreement of the prefect of Seine-Inférieure, count Jacques Claude Beugnot, Guersent sent the collection to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. In 1800, these fossils were briefly mentioned by Georges Cuvier who misspelled the name of their former owner as Bachelet. In 1808, Cuvier scientifically described the theropod vertebrae as the first dinosaur remains ever. However, he considered them to be crocodilian and associated them with fossils of the Teleosauridae and the Metriorhynchidae. In 1822, Cuvier by the work of Henry De La Bèche became aware that these finds were very disparate, stemming from different periods. He abstained from naming them but in 1824 concluded that there were two main types.
Streptospondylus | Discovery and naming
Palaeacanthaspis vasta is an extinct acanthothoracid placoderm from the early Devonian of Europe.
Palaeacanthaspis | Introduction
Fossils of "Neosclerocalyptus" have been found in:
Neosclerocalyptus | Distribution
Additionally, the basal phylogenetic position of "Anomocephalus" suggests that herbivory was acquired initially by the anomodonts of Gondwana.
Anomocephalus | History and discovery
All elements of the skeleton are now known. The finds by Sole differ from the neotype in details of the armour and might represent a separate taxon or reflect sexual dimorphism. In 2019, Norman denied this.
Scelidosaurus | History of discovery
Only the top part of the femur has been conserved; of the distal end about eight centimetres are missing as the bone was cleanly cut in two when the chalk block containing it was sawed out. Other saw cuts damaged the head of the thigh bone. The fossil was part of his personal collection, not the museum's, and sold to the British Museum of Natural History after his death in 1867. In 1892 Belgian/Dutch/German paleontologist Johan Casimir Ubaghs referred some teeth — probably of mosasaurs — to "M. bredai". "Megalosaurus bredai" was in 1883 the first terrestrial vertebrate named from Maastrichtian layers.
Betasuchus | Discovery
WGSC V26003 was discovered in Yangping, a town in Yuan’an County in Hubei Province, Central China, and excavated by Chinese paleontologists Xiao-hong Chen and Long Cheng in 2011. Despite being exposed at the surface when discovered, the specimen is largely articulated and moderately complete, preserving much of the head, trunk, left pectoral girdle, and left forelimb, and parts of the left hindlimb and the anterior part of the tail. However, several of the preserved elements have been extensively damaged by erosion, including the left pelvic girdle, and other elements were completely destroyed by erosion before discovery, including the tips of the jaws.
Eohupehsuchus | Discovery and history
This would eventually turn "Machairodus" into something of a wastebasket taxon, which would be rectified with the discoveries of more complete skeletons of other machairodonts.
Machairodus | Discovery