Ischyrosaurus

Ischyrosaurus
Temporal range: Upper Jurassic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Family: unknown
Genus: Ischyrosaurus
Hulke, 1874 ?vide Lydekker, 1888
Species: I. manseli
Hulke, 1874 ?vide Lydekker, 1888
Binomial name
Ischyrosaurus manseli
Hulke, 1874 ?vide Lydekker, 1888

"Ischyrosaurus" (meaning "strong lizard", for its large humerus; name in quotation marks because it is preoccupied) was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Kimmeridgian-age Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset, Cambridgeshire, England. It is sometimes included with the Early Cretaceous-age wastebasket taxon Pelorosaurus, although there is little evidence for this.

Contents

History and Taxonomy

"Ischyrosaurus" is based on a partial humerus (BMNH R41626) found in 1868.[1] John Hulke described it briefly in 1869,[1] then named it in 1874.[2] The genus is preoccupied by a name Edward Drinker Cope coined in 1869.

Like most sauropod remains from the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous of Europe, it became part of the Pelorosaurus-Ornithopsis taxonomic tangle, being referred first to Ornithopsis as O. manseli,[3] then to Pelorosaurus as P. manseli.[4][5][6]

Upchurch et al., in the most recent review (2004), lists it as a dubious sauropod of unknown affinities.[7] A new name is technically required, but because of the fractured taxonomy of Jurassic-Cretaceous European sauropods, researchers are waiting for better material.

Paleobiology

As a sauropod, it would have been a large quadrupedal herbivore.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Hulke, J. W. (1869). "Note on a large Saurian Humerus from the Kimmeridge Clay of the Dorset Coast". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 25: 386–389. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1869.025.01-02.66. 
  2. ^ Hulke, J. W. (1874). "Note on a very Large Saurian Limb-bone adapted for Progression upon Land, from the Kimmeridge Clay of Weymouth, Dorset". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 30: 16–17. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1874.030.01-04.17. 
  3. ^ Lydekker, R. (1888). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part I. Containing the Orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria. British Museum (Natural History):London, 1-309.
  4. ^ von Huene, F. (1909). Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier. Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1909:12-22. [German]
  5. ^ Romer, A.S. (1956). Osteology of the Reptiles. University of Chicago Press:Chicago 1-772. ISBN 0-89464-985-X
  6. ^ Steel, R. (1970). Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Part 14. Gustav Fischer Verlag:Stuttgart p. 1-87.
  7. ^ a b Upchurch, P.M., Barrett, P.M., and Dodson, P. (2004). Sauropoda. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press:Berkeley 259-322. ISBN 0-520-24209-2

External links