Craterosaurus

Craterosaurus
Temporal range: 140 Ma
↓
Vertebra
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Eurypoda
Suborder: †Stegosauria
Genus: †Craterosaurus
Seeley, 1874
Species: † C. pottonensis
Binomial name
Craterosaurus pottonensis
Seeley, 1874

Craterosaurus (meaning krater reptile or bowl reptile) was a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur. It lived during the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian to Barremian stages) around 145-136 million years ago. Its fossils were found in England. Craterosaurus may actually be a junior synonym of Regnosaurus, but only one fossil, a partial vertebra, was recovered.

The type (and only known) species is Craterosaurus pottonensis, described in 1874 by Harry Seeley.[1] The specific name refers to the Potton bonebed. Seeley mistook the fossil, holotype SMC B.28814, for the base of a cranium. Franz Nopcsa in 1912 correctly identified it as the front part of a neural arch.[2] Craterosaurus was placed in Stegosauria by Galton,[3] although subsequent authors did not recognize Craterosaurus as a distinct, valid taxon.[4][5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Seeley, H.G. (1874). "On the base of a large lacertian cranium from the Potton Sands, presumably dinosaurian". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 30: 690–692. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1874.030.01-04.62.
  2. ↑ Nopcsa, F., 1912, "Notes on British dinosaurs. Pt. IV. Craterosaurus (Seeley)", Geological Magazine, (ser. 5), 9: 481-484
  3. ↑ Galton, P. (1981). "Craterosaurus pottonensis Seeley, a stegosaurian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of England, and a review of Cretaceous stegosaurs". Neues Jahrbuch Fur Geologie und Palaeontologie, Abhandlungen 161 (1): 28–46.
  4. ↑ Maidment, Susannah C. R.; Norman, David B.; Barrett, Paul M.; Upchurch, Paul (January 2008). "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6 (4): 367–407. doi:10.1017/S1477201908002459.
  5. ↑ Maidment, Susannah C. R. (2010). "Stegosauria: a historical review of the body fossil record and phylogenetic relationships". Swiss Journal of Geosciences 103 (2): 199–210. doi:10.1007/s00015-010-0023-3.

External links


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