In Depth
Bothriospondylus has had a long taxonomic history as a sauropod dinosaur yet today the genus is regarded as dubious. This is because the type material of Bothriospondylus, really just a few vertebrae, has been so badly eroded that it is impossible to identify any unique features for the genus. This makes it impossible to assign any further fossil material to the Bothriospondylus, which to an extent has also been used as a wastebasket taxon. Indeed, any time that new fossil material has been attributed to the genus, it has usually ended up being assigned as belonging to other genera, with names including Pelorosaurus, Lapparentosaurus and Nopcsaspondylus.
Further Reading
- A monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations. Monograph on the Genus Bothriospondylus. - Palaeontographical Society, 29: 15-26 - Richard Owen - 1875. - On bones of a sauropodous dinosaur from Madagascar. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 51, 329–336. - R. Lydekker - 1895. - Notizen �ber Cretacischen Dinosaurier. Pt. 3. Wirbel eines s�damerikanischen Sauropoden [Notes on Cretaceous dinosaurs. Pt. Third vertebra of a South American sauropods]. - Akademie der Wissenschaften 3: 108–114. - Franz Nopcsa - 1902. - Les dinosaures (Carnosaures, Allosaurid�s, Sauropodes, C�tosaurid�s) du Jurassique Moyen de Cerro C�ndor (Chubut, Argentina) [Dinosaurs (Carnosaurs, Allosaurid�s, sauropods, C�tosaurid�s) Middle Jurassic Cerro Condor (Chubut, Argentina)]. - Annales de Pal�ontologie (Vert.-Invert.) 72(3): 325-386. - Jose F. Bonaparte - 1986. - Redescription of the wrist and manus of Bothriospondylus madagascariensis: new data on carpus morphology in Sauropoda. - Geodiversitas 29(4) :549-560. - �. L�ng & F. Goussard - 2007. - A revision of the sauropod dinosaur genus ‘Bothriospondylus’ with a redescription of the type material of the middle Jurassic form ‘B. madagascariensis’. - Palaeontology, 53(2): 277–296. - P. D. Mannion - 2010.
