[D] Kukufeldia tilgatensis [sG] [T]
Describer
McDonald, Barrett & Chapman, 2010
Time
Cretaceous Early Valanginian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Iguanodontia
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Grinstead Clay Member, Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation, Wealden Group, quarry at Whiteman’s Green, Cuckfield, West Sussex, England
Info
Abstract
A nearly complete right dentary originally noted by Mantell in 1848 is redescribed. The specimen, NHMUK 28660, was discovered in a quarry near Cuckfield, West Sussex, from the same formation as the original teeth of Iguanodon anglicus. Fresh examination reveals that NHMUK 28660 exhibits a single autapomorphy (a row of foramina extending from the ventral surface of the symphysis onto the lateral surface of the dentary) and a unique combination of characters that distinguish it from all other iguanodontian dentaries. In light of this and because I. anglicus is regarded as a nomen dubium to which additional material cannot be unambiguously referred, NHMUK 28660 is made the holotype of the new genus and species Kukufeldia tilgatensis.
Holotype
NHMUK 28660, a nearly complete right dentary.
Etymology. The generic name is derived from Kukufeld, an Old English name for the village of Cuckfield, near which the holotype was found; the gender of the generic name is feminine. The specific designation combines the name of Tilgate Forest, the region in which many of Mantell’s fossils were obtained, with the Latin ending -ensis (from).
Locality and Horizon
A quarry at Whiteman’s Green, Cuckfield, West Sussex. The beds once exposed in the quarry, which is not extant, belong to the Grinstead Clay Member, Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation, Wealden Group, middle–upper Valanginian (~137–136 Ma) (Allen & Wimbledon 1991; Gallois & Worssam 1993; Radley 2004; Rawson 2006; Gradstein et al. 2008). The stratigraphic nomenclature used herein is that of the British Geological Survey Lexicon of Named Rock Units (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/home.cfm).
Diagnosis of genus and species by monotypy
Iguanodontian distinguished by a single autapomorphy: row of four foramina extending dorsolaterally from the ventral surface of the symphyseal region to the lateral surface of the dentary and meeting another row of foramina ventral to the predentary groove. Also diagnosed by the following unique combination of features: tooth alveoli shaped by dentary teeth; vertical, rostrally expanded coronoid process; straight rostral ramus of dentary.