Prodeinodon
Extinct genus of dinosaurs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prodeinodon (meaning "before Deinodon") is a wastebasket taxon and a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian to Aptian stages) from the Xinlong Formation in the Napai Basin of China and from the Oosh Formation of Mongolia.[1] Two species have been formally identified (with a third informal species), all three known only from tooth fragments, showing no diagnostic features, making them difficult to classify, though they may belong to a carnosaur. At least some of the referred species may represent basal carcharodontosaurid theropods similar to Acrocanthosaurus.[2]
| Prodeinodon Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Genus: | †Prodeinodon Osborn, 1924 |
| Type species | |
| †Prodeinodon mongoliense Osborn, 1924 | |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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The type species, P. mongoliensis, was described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924.[3] A second species, P. kwangshiensis, was named in 1975.[4] "P. tibetensis" has not been formally described, and it may have belonged to its own, separate genus.[5]
Species
- P. mongoliensis (Osborn, 1924) is known from a single tooth, collected around 1923 and described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in a 1924 paper, where he also described several other theropods and sauropods discovered in Mongolia.[3] The holotype of P. mongoliensis, which is the holotype for the entire genus, is AMNH 6265, a single tooth collected from the Oosh Formation. Some scientists have considered P. mongoliensis to have been a carnosaur.[6]
- P. kwangshiensis (Hou et al., 1975) is known from four incomplete teeth and a tibia, found in the Xinlong Formation, China.[4] It can confidently be identified to Theropoda but it was probably not the same type of theropod as P. mongoliense.[6] It could represent a carcharodontosaurid closely related to Acrocanthosaurus.[7]
- "P. tibetensis" is an informal species of Prodeinodon that was briefly mentioned in 1986.[5] Known from a single vertebra found in the Hettangian Daye Group in China, this species was probably a theropod but it most likely did not belong to the same animal as P. mongoliensis and it may have belonged to its own, entirely separate genus.[6] It is geographically present in Xizang Zizhiqu, China.[8]
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