Palaeoscincus
From Greek 'palaios' meaning 'ancient' and 'skinkos' meaning 'lizard' (related to skink); translates as 'ancient lizard'.
Late Cretaceous stages
Palaeoscincus is a dubious genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur based on teeth from the mid-late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana. Like several other dinosaur genera named by Joseph Leidy (Deinodon, Thespesius, and Trachodon), it is an historically important genus with a convoluted taxonomy.
Species
Palaeoscincus costatus Leidy, 1856 Nomen dubium
Type species
From Latin 'costatus' meaning 'ribbed', in reference to the radiating costae ornamenting the tooth crown.
- Holotype
- ANSP 9263 , Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
- Material
- A single tooth with a palmate crown bearing eight radiating costae ending in variably developed marginal points; the flattened, hollow fang expands into a ridge around the crown's base.
- Horizon
- Judith River Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
- Locality
- Bad Lands of the Judith River, Montana, United States
References
- Leidy, J. (1856). Notices of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes, discovered by Dr. F. V. Hayden in the bad lands of the Judith River, Nebraska Territory. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 8: 72-73. leidy1856b
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Vickaryous, M. K.; Maryańska, T.; Weishampel, D. B. (2004). Ankylosauria. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 363-392. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Treated the Palaeoscincus teeth as indeterminate within Ankylosauria.
vickaryous2004a