Phyllodon

Thulborn, 1973 FILL-o-don Nomen dubium

From Greek 'phyllon' meaning 'leaf' and 'odon' meaning 'tooth'; translates as 'leaf tooth', named for the leaf-shaped teeth.

154.8–149.2 million years ago Kimmeridgian, Late Jurassic

Late Jurassic stages

Phyllodon is a genus of small ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Camadas de Guimarota Formation of Leiria, Portugal and possibly also the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Chipping Norton Limestone of England. It may have been closely related to contemporaneous ornithischian dinosaurs from North America. This genus is known from teeth and possibly partial lower jaws. The name is also in use for a genus of modern moss, but this is not considered to be a problem because the two organisms are in two different kingdoms.

Under dispute

Phyllodon is based only on isolated teeth from the Late Jurassic of Portugal and is widely regarded as a nomen dubium (Norman and colleagues, 2004), thought to represent a basal neornithischian comparable to Nanosaurus (Galton, 2007).

Species

Phyllodon henkeli Thulborn, 1973 Nomen dubium

Type species

Named in honor of Siegfried Henkel, a German paleontologist who discovered the Guimarota coal mine lignite beds in Portugal, which yielded the holotype jaw fragment.

Holotype: G 5 , Museu Geológico do Instituto Geológico e Mineiro
Material: Single cheek tooth crown.
Notes: G 2, a premaxillary tooth crown, is the designated paratype, not part of the holotype. The Guimarota material was originally held at the Lehrstuhl für Paläontologie of the Free University, Berlin, and marked with the acronym IPFUB; it is now in the Museu Geológico, Lisbon.
Horizon: Alcobaça Formation, Kimmeridgian, Late Jurassic , 154.8–149.2 million years ago
Locality: Guimarota mine, Leiria, Portugal

References

Thulborn, R. A. (1973). Teeth of ornithischian dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal, with description of a hypsilophodontid (Phyllodon henkeli gen. et sp. nov.) from the Guimarota lignite. Memórias dos Serviços Geológicos de Portugal 22: 89-134.
Gives the site as the Guimarota mine, with a map reference of 0 deg 20' E, 39 deg 44' N on a Carta Militar sheet, whose longitude runs from the Lisbon meridian rather than Greenwich.
thulborn1973a
Norman, D. B.; Sues, H.-D.; Witmer, L. M.; Coria, R. A. (2004). Basal Ornithopoda. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 393-412. University of California Press, Berkeley. doi:10.1525/california/9780520242098.003.0021
Lists Phyllodon henkeli among the nomina dubia of basal ornithopods.
norman2004b
Galton, P. M. (2007). Teeth of ornithischian dinosaurs (mostly Ornithopoda) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of the western United States. Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs 17-47. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Assessed the ornithischian teeth referred to Phyllodon.
galton2007c
Mateus, O.; Estraviz-López, D.; Mateus, S. (2022). Type specimens alone have a strong correlation with taxa record by geological epoch: the case study of the fossil vertebrates named from Portuguese types. Comunicações Geológicas 109(1): 57-64. LNEG – Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia.
Records that the Guimarota fossils originally marked IPFUB are now held under the acronym MG at the Museu Geológico.
mateus2022b