Mochlodon
Name: Mochlodon
(Bar tooth).
Phonetic: Mock-loe-don.
Named By: Harry Govier Seeley - 1881.
Synonyms: Iguanodon suessi.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Iguanodontia, Rhabdodontidae.
Species: M. suessi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete remains,
possibly up to 4 meters long.
Known locations: Austria.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Dentary (part of the lower
jaw) and partial post cranial remains.
The
original bones of Mochlodon were first discovered
in 1859, but were
not formerly identified until 1870. When named by Emanuel Bunzel,
the remains were identified as those of a new species of Iguanodon.
However, by this time Iguanodon was being
treated as a
'wastebasket taxon' for any remains that had a superficial
similarity to the now world famous Iguanodon.
Harry Govier Seeley
declared the remains as being worthy of their own genus, creating the
name Mochlodon after a pronounced ridge that runs
down the middle of
each tooth.
Mochlodon
has a strong similarity to another European dinosaur named Rhabdodon,
so much so that many species once assigned to Mochlodon
have been
transferred to Rhabdodon because closer study has
revealed them to
actually belong to this genus. One of these species Mochlodon
robustum that got changed to Rhabdodon robustum
and
then R. robustus
has now been renamed into its own genus, Zalmoxes.
However further
studies of Zalmoxes and Mochlodon
has led to some palaeontologists
claiming that there are no clearly defined differences between the
two, and may in fact be the same. Further fossil material may yet
clear this and no changes are likely until absolute proof can be found
to suggest that they are. If proven the same however, then Zalmoxes
would be absorbed into Mochlodon because Mochlodon
was named first.
Further reading
- The reptile fauna of the Gosau Formation preserved in the Geological
Museum of the University of Vienna. Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society of London 37(148):620-707. - harry Govier Seeley - 1881.
- Phylogeny, Histology and Inferred Body Size Evolution in a New
Rhabdodontid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary. - PLoS ONE 7
(9): e44318. - A. Ősi, E. Prondvai, R. Butler, D. B. Weishampel - 2012.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
|
 |
 |