Neosodon
From Greek 'neos' (new) and 'odon' (tooth); meaning 'new tooth'.
Neosodon was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the late Tithonian-aged (Upper Jurassic) Sables et Grès à Trigonia gibbosa of Pas-de-Calais department, France. It has never been formally given a species name, but is often seen as N. praecursor, which actually comes from a different animal. Often in the past, it had been assigned to the wastebasket taxon Pelorosaurus, but restudy has suggested that it could be related to Turiasaurus, a roughly contemporaneous giant Spanish sauropod. It is only known from six teeth.
Diagnosis
- Tooth flat and lance-point shaped, convex on external face, slightly concave on internal face
- Slightly raised ridge starting from apex and widening toward neck
- Rounded edges worn on both sides toward apex
- Root rounded externally, implanted on bone with replacement tooth hole
- Intermediate morphology between Megalosaur and Iguanodon teeth
Species
Neosodon sp. de la Moussaye, 1884
Type species
No valid species epithet has been formally assigned; the genus has never been given an official species name.
- Holotype
- BHN2R 112 , Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Boulogne-sur-Mer
- Material
- Tooth from ferruginous sands of Wimille; 60mm height, 35mm width, 20mm thickness; black, smooth, flat lance-point shape, convex externally, slightly concave internally with raised ridge
- Horizon
- Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 149.2–143.1 million years ago
- Locality
- Wimille, Hauts-de-France, France
References
-
de la Moussaye, G. (1884). Sur une dent de Neosodon trouvée dans les sables ferrugineux de Wimille [On a tooth of Neosodon found in the ferruginous sandstone of Wimille]. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 3e série 13: 51-54.
Reports the tooth from the ferruginous sands of Wimille, in a quarry yielding an Upper Portlandian fauna.
delamoussaye1884a -
Molina-Pérez, R.; Larramendi, A. (2020). Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Sauropods and Other Sauropodomorphs. Princeton University Press.
Source of the body length and mass estimates.
molina-pérez2020a