Diclonius
From Greek diklos ('double') + klonos ('sprout' or 'shoot'), meaning 'double sprout', referring to the tooth-replacement method in which newly erupting teeth could be in use simultaneously with older worn teeth.
Diclonius is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. It was a hadrosaur based solely on teeth. Its fossils were found in the Judith River Formation of Montana, northern US. The name is in reference to the method of tooth replacement, in which newly erupting replacement teeth could be in functional use at the same time as older, more worn teeth.
Under dispute
Diclonius is a nomen dubium based on isolated teeth, historically applied to a range of unrelated hadrosaurid material.
Species
Diclonius pentagonus Cope, 1876 Nomen dubium
Type species
From Greek 'pentagonus' meaning 'five-angled' or 'pentagonal', likely referring to the cross-sectional shape of the teeth on which the taxon was based.
- Holotype
- AMNH 3972 , American Museum of Natural History
- Material
- Teeth of an individual of moderate dimensions; a single series of teeth preserved in the jaw bone
- Horizon
- Judith River Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
- Locality
- Montana, United States Cope (1876) is titled for "the Fort Union Beds of Montana" but applies that name to the Fort Union bad lands of the Judith River, the same ground that yielded Leidy's Trachodon mirabilis. Lull and Wright (1942), quoting Sternberg's account of the 1876 expedition, add the camp on Dog Creek and list this species among the material taken there, though they mark the attribution with their own question mark.
References
-
Cope, E. D. (1876). Descriptions of some vertebrate remains from the Fort Union Beds of Montana. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 28: 248-261.
Erects the species on teeth from "the Fort Union Beds of Montana", which the text equates with the bad lands of the Judith River. Gives no locality beyond that.
cope1876a -
Lull, R. S.; Wright, N. E. (1942). Hadrosaurian Dinosaurs of North America. Geological Society of America Special Papers 40: 1-272. Geological Society of America. doi:10.1130/spe40-p1
Quotes Sternberg's account of the 1876 expedition for a camp on Dog Creek east of the Judith River, listing this species among the material taken there but querying the attribution.
lull1942a -
Coombs, W. P. Jr. (1988). The status of the dinosaurian genus Diclonius and the taxonomic utility of hadrosaurian teeth. Journal of Paleontology 62(5): 812-817.
Reviews the genus and gives the holotype's horizon as the Judith River Formation without qualification, while querying the Dog Creek locality independently of Lull and Wright.
coombs1988b