Open Paleo

Betasuchus

Huene, 1932 BAYT-uh-SOOK-us Nomen dubium

From Greek 'beta' (the second letter) and 'suchos' meaning 'crocodile'; von Huene coined the name when renaming 'Megalosaurus bredai' in 1932, giving 'B crocodile'.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Betasuchus is a genus of probable abelisaurid theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous Period. Betasuchus is, besides Orthomerus and birds such as Enantiornithines, the only dinosaur genus named from remains found in the Netherlands and the only non-avian theropod found in the Maastrichtian Beds.

Under dispute

Betasuchus is based on a single femur fragment and is widely regarded as a nomen dubium. It is generally interpreted as an abelisaurid, although Carrano and Sampson (2008) placed it only as an indeterminate ceratosaur and an affinity with Dryptosaurus has also been proposed.

Species

Betasuchus bredai (Seeley, 1883) Nomen dubium

Type species

First named as Megalosaurus bredai

Named for the late Dutch biologist and geologist Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda, a director of the Teylers Museum who collected the fossil sometime between 1820 and 1860.

Holotype
NHMUK PV R 42997 , Natural History Museum
Material
Right femur; distal end sawn away, proximal end worn and broken; preserved length ~29 cm
Horizon
Maastricht Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Limburg, Netherlands The holotype femur is part of the same undocumented Sint-Pietersberg material Seeley (1883) described, so it carries the same uncertainty as Orthomerus dolloi.

References

  1. Seeley, H. G. (1883). On the Dinosaurs from the Maastricht Beds. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 39(1-4): 246-253. Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/gsl.jgs.1883.039.01-04.19

    Original description, as Megalosaurus bredai.

    seeley1883a
  2. Huene, F. V. (1932). Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte [The fossil reptile order Saurischia, their development and history]. Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, serie 1 4(1-2): 1-361.

    Reassigns Megalosaurus bredai to Betasuchus bredai.

    huene1932a
  3. Carrano, M. T.; Sampson, S. D. (2008). The Phylogeny of Ceratosauria (Dinosauria: Theropoda). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6(2): 183-236. doi:10.1017/S1477201907002246

    Placed Betasuchus only as an indeterminate ceratosaur, not confidently abelisaurid

    carrano2008a