Diclonius

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This article is about a type of dinosaur. For a being from the anime series Elfen Lied, see Elfen Lied.
iDiclonius
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Ornithopoda
Infraorder: Iguanodontia
Superfamily: Hadrosauroidea
Family: Hadrosauridae
Genus: Diclonius
Cope, 1876
Species
  •  ?D. pentagonus
  •  ?D. calamarius
  •  ?D. perangulatus

Diclonius (meaning "double sprout") is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. It was a hadrosaur based solely on teeth. Its fossils have been found in North America. The name is in reference to the tooth roots, which are doubled and in contrast to Monoclonius ("single stem"), which Cope named in the same paper.

The type species, Diclonius pentagonus, is a nomen nudum discovered by Cope in 1876. Other formally undescribed species include D. calamarius and D. perangulatus. A "fourth" species has been reclassified as Anatotitan. They are all tooth taxa, known only from teeth and one jaw.

Although Cope referred several other batches of teeth to the genus, under several species, the name is considered a nomen nudum.

Contents

[edit] Species

Type:

  • D. pentagonus (Cope, 1876); fragmentary dentary with teeth

Other Species:

  • D. calamarius (Cope, 1876); teeth
  • D. mirabilis (Cope, 1883); included in part with Trachodon mirabilis and Anatotitan copei
  • D. perangulatus (Cope, 1876); teeth

[edit] Other uses

Along with the dinosaur, diclonius is also a human-like race from Elfen Lied.

[edit] External links

[edit] Offline References

[edit] Original Sources

The structure and appearance of the Laramie dinosaurian. Cope, E. D. AMERICAN NATURALIST xvii; 774-777 (1883).

The status of the dinosaurian genus Diclonius and the taxonomic utility of hadrosaurian teeth. Coombs, W. JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY 62; 812-817 (1988).