Polacanthoides
Invalid genus of dinosaur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polacanthoides (meaning like Polacanthus) is a dubious genus of nodosaurid dinosaur from the Wessex Formation of England. The type species is P. ponderosus.[1]
| Polacanthoides Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, ~ | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Polacanthinae |
| Genus: | †Polacanthoides Nopcsa, 1928 |
| Type species | |
| †Polacanthoides ponderosus Nopcsa, 1928 | |
Discovery and naming
The holotype is NHMUK 2584 and it is a left scapula and left tibia discovered at the quarry near Bolney, West Sussex sometime between the 1820s and 1833;[2] the whereabouts of the holotype scapula could not be located by Blows (1987).[3] NHMUK 2584 was initially assigned to Hylaeosaurus by Mantell (1833),[4] and the new species Polacanthoides ponderosus was created for it by Nopsca (1928).[1]
Two more specimens were referred to P. ponderosus by Blows (1987): BMNH 2620a, a fragmentary right scapula, and BMNH 2615, a left tibia and scapula.[3] Mantell (1833) initially believed BMNH 2615 was a humerus,[4] while Lydekker (1888) assumed it was a left tibia.[5]
Classification
Polacanthoides is a member of the Polacanthinae and it has been suggested it was a chimera of skeletal elements belonging to Hylaeosaurus and Polacanthus.[6] It has also been suggested that Polacanthoides belonged to Stegosauria.[2]
