[D] Heterosaurus neocomiensis [jG]
Describer
Cornual, 1850 (partim)
Time
Cretaceous Early Hauterivian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Iguanodontidae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Marine Calcaire à Spatangues near Wassy, Haute-Marne province, France
Fall Under
Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
Info
Genus
Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis (Paul, 2006) > Iguanodon atherfieldensis (Hooley, 1924) > Iguanodon mantelli (Meyer, 1832) Vectisaurus valdensis (Hulke, 1879) Therosaurus mantelli (Fitzinger, 1840) Sphenospondylus gracilis (Seeley, 1882) Heterosaurus neocomiensis (Cornual, 1850 partim).
Some of the type specimen of Heterosaurus neocomiensis is crocodilian.
Owen\\\'s species [Cetiosaurus brachyurus] (1842), Streptospondylus major (1842), [Streptospondylus recentior] (1851), and [Streptospondylus meyeri] (1854) were all based on Iguanodon material more or less indeterminate at the species level. (At the time, Streptospondylus itself was misidentified as a crocodilian; it is actually a theropod dinosaur.) France, too, entered the fray with remains unearthed by paleontologist Jacques Cornuel and described by him in 1850 as a new genus and species of dinosaur, Heterosaurus neocomiensis (\\\"different lizard from the Neocomian\\\": so called because its teeth differed from those of Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, and Megalosaurus and supposedly required a new genus.
Mixed with plesiosaur teeth--the nondinosaurian \\\"different\\\" teeth--were the scattered bones of a medium-size Iguanodon skeleton, to date one of the best-preserved dinosaurs ever found from the Early Cretaceous of France. Briefly noted by G. Corroy in 1922, Heterosaurus neocomiensis remained largely forgotten as a doubtful taxon with a composite type specimen for more than a century, until 1968, when it was tersely redescribed by Albert F. de Lapparent and Vladimir Stchepinsky .
Now stored at the Saint-Dizier Museum, Cornuel\\\'s material, as well as other French Iguanodon material, was thoroughly and completely redescribed in 1992 by Valérie Martin and Eric Buffetaut of the Université Paris. They concluded that Heterosaurus neocomiensis most closely resembles Iguanodon atherfieldensis among the currently valid species in that genus. Should this suggested synonymy be accepted, the trivial name atherfieldensis would have to be abandoned in favor of neocomiensis.
Cornual, 1850 (partim)
Time
Cretaceous Early Hauterivian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Iguanodontidae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Marine Calcaire à Spatangues near Wassy, Haute-Marne province, France
Fall Under
Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
Info
Genus
Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis (Paul, 2006) > Iguanodon atherfieldensis (Hooley, 1924) > Iguanodon mantelli (Meyer, 1832) Vectisaurus valdensis (Hulke, 1879) Therosaurus mantelli (Fitzinger, 1840) Sphenospondylus gracilis (Seeley, 1882) Heterosaurus neocomiensis (Cornual, 1850 partim).
Some of the type specimen of Heterosaurus neocomiensis is crocodilian.
Owen\\\'s species [Cetiosaurus brachyurus] (1842), Streptospondylus major (1842), [Streptospondylus recentior] (1851), and [Streptospondylus meyeri] (1854) were all based on Iguanodon material more or less indeterminate at the species level. (At the time, Streptospondylus itself was misidentified as a crocodilian; it is actually a theropod dinosaur.) France, too, entered the fray with remains unearthed by paleontologist Jacques Cornuel and described by him in 1850 as a new genus and species of dinosaur, Heterosaurus neocomiensis (\\\"different lizard from the Neocomian\\\": so called because its teeth differed from those of Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, and Megalosaurus and supposedly required a new genus.
Mixed with plesiosaur teeth--the nondinosaurian \\\"different\\\" teeth--were the scattered bones of a medium-size Iguanodon skeleton, to date one of the best-preserved dinosaurs ever found from the Early Cretaceous of France. Briefly noted by G. Corroy in 1922, Heterosaurus neocomiensis remained largely forgotten as a doubtful taxon with a composite type specimen for more than a century, until 1968, when it was tersely redescribed by Albert F. de Lapparent and Vladimir Stchepinsky .
Now stored at the Saint-Dizier Museum, Cornuel\\\'s material, as well as other French Iguanodon material, was thoroughly and completely redescribed in 1992 by Valérie Martin and Eric Buffetaut of the Université Paris. They concluded that Heterosaurus neocomiensis most closely resembles Iguanodon atherfieldensis among the currently valid species in that genus. Should this suggested synonymy be accepted, the trivial name atherfieldensis would have to be abandoned in favor of neocomiensis.