Describer

Smets, 1888

Classification

Not considered dinosaur

Info

Genus

Based on 2? pieces of supposed jaw fragments of a hadrosaurid dinosaur.Its determined to not be a dinosaur, but pieces of petrified wood? Bulletinde la société Belge de Géologie de Paléontologie& D´Hydrologie founded in Brussels, 17 February 1887 Volume II. – Year 1888 – Minutes. – Session of 31 October. pp. 300-301 L. Dollo. Aachenosaurus multidens.

In 1888, Mr. Abbey G. Smets, doctor of natural sciences and professor at the Collège Saint-Joseph in Hasselt, described and figured (1) two fossils from the Aachenian deposits of Moresnet under the name of Aachenosaurus multidens. Mr. Smets considered these fossils to be the remains of a dinosaurian reptile, of the order Ornithopoda and family Hadrosauridae.

He concluded that Aachenosaurus must have been bipedal, that it reached 4 to 5 meters in length, that it undoubtedly had a spatulate mandible, that it probably fed on tender plants and that it probably had a body covered in dermal spines. Finally, the Hasselt naturalist declared, twice, that his results were based not only on the examination of the fossils with the naked eye, but also on study by magnifying glass and microscope.Having obtained the pieces of Aachenosaurus through communication, Mr. Dollo shows, pieces in hand (without the microscopic preparations which he does not possess at this moment) that the fossils published as reptile bones by Mr. Smets are only pieces of silicified wood.

All the members present agreed to this interpretation, notably Mr. Maurice Hovelacque (of Paris), doctor of natural sciences and botanist by profession. The work in extenso of Mr. Dollo will appear later.

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