Open Paleo

Polacanthoides

Nopcsa, 1928 pol-uh-KAN-thoy-deez Nomen dubium

From Polacanthus (the related genus) and Greek -oides (-οειδής, 'resembling' or 'like'), meaning 'resembling Polacanthus'

143.1–113.2 million years ago Berriasian–Aptian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Polacanthoides is a dubious genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Wealden of southern England. The type species is P. ponderosus.

Species

Polacanthoides ponderosus Nopcsa, 1929 Nomen dubium

Type species

From Latin 'ponderosus' meaning 'heavy' or 'ponderous'.

Syntype
NHMUK PV OR 2584 , Natural History Museum
Notes
Nopcsa (1929) names the scapula and the humerus NHMUK PV R 1106 together as the type. Only the scapula is listed here, because the humerus, now known from a cast, comes from the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight (Raven and colleagues, 2020), not from Sussex.
Horizon
Wealden Group, Berriasian–Aptian, Early Cretaceous , 143.1–113.2 million years ago
Locality
Bolney, West Sussex, United Kingdom

References

  1. Mantell, G. A. (1841). Memoir on a portion of the lower jaw of the Iguanodon, and on the remains of the Hylaeosaurus and other saurians, discovered in the strata of Tilgate Forest, in Sussex. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 131: 131-151. The Royal Society. doi:10.1098/rstl.1841.0013

    Referred a scapula from Bolney, Sussex (NHMUK PV OR 2584), to Hylaeosaurus; Nopcsa (1928) later included it in the type material of Polacanthoides.

    mantell1841a
  2. Nopcsa, B. F. (1928). Palaeontological notes on reptiles. Geologica Hungarica, Series Palaeontologica 1(1): 1-84. Institutum Regni Hungariae Geologicum.

    Names the genus Polacanthoides, without a species, in a footnote on a scapula, humerus and tibia, deferring the redescription to a later paper.

    nopcsa1928a
  3. Nopcsa, B. F. (1929). Dinosaurierreste aus Siebenbürgen V [Dinosaur remains from Transylvania V]. Geologica Hungarica, Series Palaeontologica 4(1): 1-76.

    Names the species ponderosus for the genus Nopcsa (1928) had erected without one, on the scapula and humerus.

    nopcsa1929a
  4. Raven, T. J.; Barrett, P. M.; Pond, S. B.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2020). Osteology and taxonomy of British Wealden Supergroup (Berriasian-Aptian) ankylosaurs (Ornithischia, Ankylosauria). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1826956

    Reassessed the Polacanthoides type material as indeterminate ankylosaur remains lacking the diagnostic features of either Hylaeosaurus or Polacanthus, and regarded P. ponderosus as a nomen dubium.

    raven2020a