Diclonius

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This article is about a type of dinosaur. For the fictional mutant race from the manga / anime series Elfen Lied, see Elfen Lied#Diclonius.
Diclonius
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 75Ma
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Ornithopoda
Superfamily: †Hadrosauroidea
Family: †Hadrosauridae
Genus: †Diclonius
Cope, 1876
Species: † D. pentagonus
Binomial name
Diclonius pentagonus
Cope, 1876
Synonyms

Trachodon pentagonus (Cope, 1876)

Diclonius (meaning "double sprout") is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. It was a hadrosaur based solely on teeth. Its fossils were found in the Judith River Formation of Montana. The name is in reference to the method of tooth replacement, in which newly erupting replacement teeth could be in functional use at the same time as older, more worn teeth. Thus, the number of "sprouting" teeth was doubled in comparison to Monoclonius ("single sprout"), which used only one set of teeth at a time and which Cope named in the same paper.[1]

The type species, Diclonius pentagonus, was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1876, based on a single tooth specimen (AMNH 3972). Other formally undescribed species include D. calamarius and D. perangulatus. Although Cope referred several other batches of teeth to the genus, under several species, the name is considered a nomen dubium.

Species

Type:

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

Formerly referred Species:

  • D. calamarius Cope, 1876; teeth, nomen dubium
  • D. mirabilis (Leidy, 1856) Cope, 1883; junior synonym of Trachodon mirabilis
  • D. perangulatus Cope, 1876; teeth, nomen dubium

References

  1. ↑ Creisler, Benjamin S. (September 1992). "Why Monoclonius Cope Was Not Named for Its Horn: The Etymologies of Cope's Dinosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 12 (3): 313–317. doi:10.1080/02724634.1992.10011462. JSTOR 4523455. 
  • E. D. Cope. 1876. Descriptions of some vertebrate remains from the Fort Union Beds of Montana. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 28:248-261
  • Cope, E. D. 1883. The structure and appearance of the Laramie dinosaurian. American Naturalist 37:774-777.
  • Coombs, W. 1988. The status of the dinosaurian genus Diclonius and the taxonomic utility of hadrosaurian teeth. Journal of Paleontology 62:812-817.

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