Syngonosaurus is an extinct genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It was an iguanodontian discovered in the Cambridge Greensand of England[1] and was first described in 1879. The type species, S. macrocercus, was described by British paleontologist Harry Seeley in 1879[2] and it was later synonymised with Acanthopholis, but the genus was reinstated in a 2020 study, when Syngonosaurus and Eucercosaurus were reinterpreted as basal iguanodontians.[3]

Syngonosaurus
Temporal range: late Albian
~105–100 Ma
Vertebra of S. macrocercus as seen from two different angles
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Clade: Iguanodontia
Genus: Syngonosaurus
Seeley, 1879
Species:
S. macrocercus
Binomial name
Syngonosaurus macrocercus
Seeley, 1879
Synonyms

Discovery and naming

edit
 
Sacral vertebra of A. macrocercus as seen from two different angles[2]

In 1869 Harry Govier Seeley named several new species of Acanthopholis based on remains from the Cambridge Greensand, including A. macrocercus, based on specimens CAMSM B55570-55609.[4]

In 1879 Seeley named the genus Syngonosaurus based on part of the type material of Acanthopholis macrocercus.[2]

In 1999 Xabier Pereda-Superbiola and Paul M. Barrett reviewed all Acanthopholis material. They concluded that all species were nomina dubia whose syntype specimens were composites of non-diagnostic ankylosaur and ornithopod remains; including Syngonosaurus.[5]

Syngonosaurus was synonymised with Acanthopholis in 1999, but the genus was reinstated in a 2020 study, when Syngonosaurus and Eucercosaurus were reinterpreted as basal iguanodontians.[3]

Classification

edit

Syngonosaurus was seen as an ankylosaur in both a 2001 publication[1] and a 2004 publication.[6] In 2020, Syngonosaurus was classified into Iguanodontia.[3]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Carpenter, Kenneth (2001). "Phylogenetic Analysis of Ankylosauria". In Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.). The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. pp. 455–480. ISBN 0-253-33964-2.
  2. ^ a b c Seeley, H.G. (1879). "On the Dinosauria of the Cambridge Greensand". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 35 (1–4): 591–636. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1879.035.01-04.42. ISSN 0370-291X. S2CID 129277596.
  3. ^ a b c Barrett, Paul M.; Bonsor, Joseph A. (2020). "A revision of the non-avian dinosaurs Eucercosaurus tanyspondylus and Syngonosaurus macrocercus from the Cambridge Greensand, UK". Cretaceous Research. 118: 104638. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104638. S2CID 225289654.
  4. ^ Seeley, H.G. (1871). "XXXVII.— On Acanthopholis platypus (Seeley), a Pachypod from the Cambridge Upper Greensand". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 8 (47): 305–318. doi:10.1080/00222937108696494. ISSN 0374-5481.
  5. ^ Superbiola, X.P.; Barrett, P.M. (1999). "A systematic review of ankylosaurian dinosaur remains from the Albian-Cenomanian of England". Special Papers in Palaeontology. 60: 177–208.
  6. ^ M. K. Vickaryous, T. Maryanska, and D. B. Weishampel. 2004. Ankylosauria. In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 363-392