Poekilopleuron
Name:
Poekilopleuron
(Varied rib).
Phonetic: Poe-ke-lo-plu-ron.
Named By: Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps -
1838.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Allosauroidea, Sinraptoridae.
Species: P. bucklandii
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Estimated 9 meters long.
Known locations: France.
Time period: Bathonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial remains.
Discovered
back in the early days of scientific palaeontology,
Eudes-Deslongchamp named the species Poekilopleuron
bucklandii in
honour of William Buckland, the man who named the first ever known
dinosaur Megalosaurus.
Additionally Eudes-Deslongchamp thought that
Poekilopleuron may actually be the same species of
dinosaur as
Megalosaurus, an idea shared by the
palaeontologists Fredriech von
Huene in the twentieth century. Despite this however, most other
palaeontologists continue to treat Poekilopleuron
as a distinct genus.
The genus name is derived from three distinct groups of ribs in the
holotype.
A
second species of Poekilopleuron (as Poicilopleuron
valens) was
created in 1870 by Joseph Leidy based upon the description of a
single partial tail vertebrae from the Morrison Formation of Colorado,
USA. In 1873 Leidy renamed this species as a distinct genus,
Antrodemus, however in 1920 Charles W.
Gilmore identified it
as a vertebra of an Allosaurus,
an identification that has been
accepted and followed by many other palaeontologists.
Another
species Poikilopleuron pusillus (named by Richard
Owen in 1876)
was renamed Poekilopleuron minor by Edward Drinker
Cope in 1879
only to be renamed as a new genus Aristosuchus
by Harry Govier Seeley
in 1887. Poekilopleuron schmidti, created in
1883 by W.A.
Kiprijanow has since been found to be based upon sauropod foot bones
and unidentifiable ribs, which is why this species is no longer
considered valid. The most recently named species of Poekilopleuron
valesdunensis (Ronan Allain, 2002) was renamed as the
genus
Dubreuillosaurus
in 2005. To date only the type species, P.
bucklandii, remains. Additionally the original remains
were
destroyed in World War Two during the battle for Caen, which means
that today we only have drawings and casts of the originals to go on.
Poekilopleuron
was towards the larger end of the scale for Jurassic era theropods from
Europe. One interesting thing are the long fore arms of
Poekilopleuron, which in general terms concerning
theropods fits in
with the pattern of theropod forearms getting progressively smaller
during the Mesozoic.
Further reading
- M�moire sur le Poekilopleuron bucklandii, grand
saurien fossile,
interm�diaire entre les crocodiles et les l�zards. A. Hardel, Caen, 114
p., 8 pl. - J. -A. Eudes-Deslongchamps - 1837.
- M�moire sur le Poekilopleuron bucklandii, grande
saurien fossile,
interm�diaire entre les crocodiles et les l�zards, d�couvert dans les
carri�res de la Maladrerie, pr�s Caen, au mois de juillet 1835. -
M�moires de la Soci�t� Linn�enne Normandie. 6: 37–146, 8 pl. - J. -A.
Eudes-Deslongchamps - 1838.
- Note on Poekilopleuron bucklandi of Eudes
Deslongchamps (p�re),
identifying it with Megalosaurus bucklandi. - Quarterly Journal of the
Geological Society. 35 (1–4): 233–238. - J. W. Hulke - 1879.
- On Aristosuchus pusillus Owen, being further notes on the fossils
described by Sir R. Owen as Poikilopleuron pusillus Owen. - Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society of London. 43 (1–4): 221–228. - H. G.
Seeley - 1887.
- Poekilopleuron bucklandii, the theropod dinosaur
from the Middle
Jurassic (Bathonian) of Normandy. - Palaeontology. 45 (6): 1107–1121. -
R. Allain & D. J. Chure - 2002.
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