Deinodon

Deinodon Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 77Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Illustration of the teeth
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Theropoda
Family:	†Tyrannosauridae
Subfamily:	†Deinodontinae Cope, 1866
Genus:	†Deinodon Leidy, 1856
Type species
†Deinodon horridus Leidy, 1856
Synonyms
Megalosaurus horridus (Leidy, 1856) Aublysodon lateralis Cope, 1876 Laelaps falculus Cope, 1876 Laelaps hazenianus Cope, 1876 Laelaps incrassatus? Cope, 1876 Dryptosaurus kenabekides Hay, 1899 Gorgosaurus libratus? Lambe, 1914 Gorgosaurus sternbergi? Matthew & Brown, 1923

Deinodon (Greek for "terrible tooth") is a tyrannosaurid dinosaur genus containing a single species, Deinodon horridus. D. horridus is known only from a set of teeth found in the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana and named by paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1856.^[1] These were the first tyrannosaurid remains to be described and had been collected by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden.^[1]

It is likely that the fossilized teeth of D. horridus belonged to the dinosaur later identified as Gorgosaurus libratus. In a 1922 study, William Diller Matthew & Barnum Brown found that the teeth of D. horridus and G. libratus were indistinguishable from each other, and that they almost certainly belonged to the same species. However, because D. horridus was not yet known from any skeletal remains, they refrained from formally declaring them to be synonyms.^[2][3] In a 1970 review, Dale Russell stated that because the teeth of D. horridus could not be distinguished from either G. libratus or his newly described species Daspletosaurus torosus, it must be considered a nomen vanum ("empty name").^[4] Since Russell published his opinion, most researchers have regarded Deinodon as a nomen dubium,^[3] though some have argued that since Deinodon and Gorgosaurus cannot be distinguished, they should be synonymized with D. horridus as the valid name for "Gorgosaurus" skeletons.^[5] Additionally, several researchers have agreed that the genus Aublysodon (including the species A. mirandus and A. lateralis), should also be considered a synonym of Deinodon, since it is based on incisor teeth that likely come from the same animal.^[2][5]

List of species and synonyms

Numerous species were referred to the genus Deinodon in the past. However, because most researchers now consider the genus and its type species nomina dubia, any additional species referred to the genus cannot be supported.

References