[N] 2012 Pegomastax africana a new Heterodontosaurid from South Africa
Sereno, P. (2012) Taxonomy, morphology, masticatory function and phylogeny of heterodontosaurid dinosaurs. ZooKeys 226 (2012) : Special issue: 1-225 doi:10.3897/zookeys.226.284
Heterodontosaurids comprise an important early radiation of small-bodied herbivores that persisted for approximately 100 My from Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous time. Review of available fossils unequivocally establishes Echinodon as a very small-bodied, late-surviving northern heterodontosaurid similar to the other northern genera Fruitadens and Tianyulong.
Tianyulong from northern China has unusual skeletal proportions, including a relatively large skull, short forelimb, and long manual digit II. The southern African heterodontosaurid genus Lycorhinus is established as valid, and a new taxon from the same formation is named Pegomastax africanus gen. n., sp. n. Tooth replacement and tooth-to-tooth wear is more common than previously thought among heterodontosaurids, and in Heterodontosaurus the angle of tooth-to-tooth shear is shown to increase markedly during maturation.
Long-axis rotation of the lower jaw during occlusion is identified here as the most likely functional mechanism underlying marked tooth wear in mature specimens of Heterodontosaurus. Extensive tooth wear and other evidence suggests that all heterodontosaurids were predominantly or exclusively herbivores. Basal genera such as Echinodon, Fruitadens and Tianyulong with primitive, subtriangular crowns currently are known only from northern landmasses. All other genera except the enigmatic Pisanosaurus have deeper crown proportions and currently are known only from southern landmasses.
Sereno PC (2012) Corrigenda: Sereno PC (2012) Taxonomy, morphology, masticatory function and phylogeny of heterodontosaurid dinosaurs. ZooKeys 227: 101–101. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.227.4091
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999) mandates that the gender of a Greek or Latin stem composing a species name must match the gender of a stem in any generic name with which it is combined (Article 31.2). Should there exist gender mismatch at the time a new binomen is proposed, the original authorship and citation are maintained but the name must be corrected (Article 34.2). Thus “Pegomastax africanus” is here corrected to Pegomastax africana, which is derived from Greek (pegos, strong; mastax [f.], jaw), unknown sources (“Africa”), and Latin (-ana [f.], pertaining to).