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Paranthodon (/pəˈraenθədɒn/) is a genus of extinct stegosaurian dinosaur that lived in South Africa during the Early Cretaceous, between 139 and 131 million years ago. Discovered in 1845, it was one of the first stegosaurians found. Its only remains, a partial skull and isolated teeth, were found in the Kirkwood Formation. British paleontologist Richard Owen initially identified the fragments as those of the pareiasaur Anthodon. After remaining untouched for years in the British Museum of Natural History, the partial skull was identified by South African paleontologist Robert Broom as belonging to a different genus; he named the specimen Palaeoscincus africanus. Several years later, Hungarian paleontologist Franz Nopcsa, unaware of Broom's new name, similarly concluded that it represented a new taxon, and named it Paranthodon owenii. Since Nopcsa's species name was assigned after Broom's, and Broom did not assign a new genus, both names are now synonyms of the current binomial, Paranthodon africanus. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek para (near) with the genus name Anthodon, to represent the initial referral of the remains.In identifying the remains as those of Palaeoscincus, Broom initially classified Paranthodon as an ankylosaurian, a statement backed by the research of Coombs in the 1970s. However, in 1929, Nopcsa identified the taxon as a stegosaurid, with which most modern studies agree. In 1981, the genus was reviewed with modern taxonomy, and found to be a valid genus of stegosaurid. However, a 2018 review of Paranthodon could only identify one distinguishing feature, and while that study still referred it to Stegosauria based on similarity and multiple phylogenetic analyses, no diagnostic features of the group could be identified in Paranthodon.
Paranthodon (/pəˈraenθədɒn/) is a genus of extinct stegosaurian dinosaur that lived in South Africa during the Early Cretaceous, between 139 and 131 million years ago. Discovered in 1845, it was one of the first stegosaurians found. Its only remains, a partial skull and isolated teeth, were found in the Kirkwood Formation. British paleontologist Richard Owen initially identified the fragments as those of the pareiasaur Anthodon. After remaining untouched for years in the British Museum of Natural History, the partial skull was identified by South African paleontologist Robert Broom as belonging to a different genus; he named the specimen Palaeoscincus africanus. Several years later, Hungarian paleontologist Franz Nopcsa, unaware of Broom's new name, similarly concluded that it represented a new taxon, and named it Paranthodon owenii. Since Nopcsa's species name was assigned after Broom's, and Broom did not assign a new genus, both names are now synonyms of the current binomial, Paranthodon africanus. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek para (near) with the genus name Anthodon, to represent the initial referral of the remains.In identifying the remains as those of Palaeoscincus, Broom initially classified Paranthodon as an ankylosaurian, a statement backed by the research of Coombs in the 1970s. However, in 1929, Nopcsa identified the taxon as a stegosaurid, with which most modern studies agree. In 1981, the genus was reviewed with modern taxonomy, and found to be a valid genus of stegosaurid. However, a 2018 review of Paranthodon could only identify one distinguishing feature, and while that study still referred it to Stegosauria based on similarity and multiple phylogenetic analyses, no diagnostic features of the group could be identified in Paranthodon.
This paper describes the distal end of the femur of a dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic of Aguilar del Río Alhama (La Rioja), in the eastern part of the Cameros Basin. Discovered in 2001, it has unfortunately been delocalized for many years, so that it has not been possible to provide an adequate description and interpretation of it before. Although the material is very fragmentary, the morphology of both condyles (tibial and fibular) is well observed. The shallow intercondylar groove, the clearly bilobulated and very wide morphology in distal view, as well as the morphometric indices analyzed, indicate that this specimen could belong to a stegosaurid dinosaur, probably close to the genera Stegosaurus and Dacentrurus. The area of the tibial condyle (mostly on its anterior face) presents a fracture of tectonic origin that is filled with quartz and calcite crystals. This finding constitutes the first osteological remain of the Stegosauria clade in the eastern sector of the Cameros Basin which, together with some ichnites of thyreophorans already known in this area, represents a significant complement on the presence of stegosaurian dinosaurs in the vertebrate communities of the last phase of the Jurassic in the Cameros Basin.
RESUMENEl registro de restos directos de dinosaurios en la Península Ibérica ha mostrado, en los últimos años, que puede ser muy relevante para el conocimiento de distintos aspectos de la historia evolutiva del grupo y, dada la posición de la Península Ibérica, para la interpretación de la distribución de muchos de sus componentes. El registro ibérico cuenta con representantes de casi todos los grandes grupos de dinosaurios: ornitópodos, tireóforos, terópodos y saurópodos, que están bien representados, sobre todo en el tránsito Jurásico-Cretácico (Kimmeridgiense-Berriasiewe), en parte del Cretácico Inferior (Barremiense-Aptiense) y en el final del Cretácico Superior (Campaniense-Maastrichtiense).El conjunto de ornitisquios está compuesto por tireóforos, de los que se han identificado dos estegosaurios (Dacentrurus y Stegosaurus) y tres anquilosaurios (Dracopelta, Polacanthus y Struthiosaurus) y ornitópodos: hipsilofodóntidos, iguanodontia basales (Rhabdodon); driosáuridos, camptosáuridos (Draconyx y Camptosaurus), iguanodontoideos (Iguanodon) y hadrosáuridos (Pararhabdodon). Además existe un gran número de formas de asignación dudosa o aún por describir.El registro de saurópodos está fundamentalmente compuesto por formas cercanas al nodo Neosauropoda (Lourinhasaurus, Dinheirosaurus, Galveosaurus y Losillasaurus) y titanosauriformes (Aragosaurus, Lusotitan y Lirainosaurus), además de una serie de formas nuevas en fase de descripción, como los saurópodos de Riodeva (Teruel), Peñarroya de Tastavins (Teruel) y Morella (Castellón).El conjunto de géneros de terópodos ibéricos está constituido por el ceratosaurio Ceratosaurus, el espinosauroide Torvosaurus, los carnosaurios Lourinhanosaurus y Allosaurus, el tiranosauroide Aviatyrannis, el ornitomimosaurio Pelecanimimus, y los terópodos avianos Iberomesornis, Concornis, Eoalulavis y Noguerornis. Sin embargo, la diversidad de terópodos es mucho mayor, como muestra la abundante colección de morfotipos dentarios identificados. ABSTRACTBody fossils of the Iberian Peninsula dinosaurs are very relevant for the knowledge of several aspects of the evolutionary history of the group, and, in addition, for the interpretation of the distribution of many of its components, due to the geographic situation of the Iberian Peninsula. Almost all of the groups of dinosaurs are represented in the Iberian Peninsula record: ornithopods, thyreophorans, theropods and sauropods. These groups are present, mainly, in the transit Jurassic-Cretaceous (Kimmeridigian-Berriasian), the upper part of the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian-Aptian) and in the end of the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Masstrichtian).Ornithischian dinosaurs are represented by thyreophorans such as the stegosaurians Dacentrurus and Stegosaurus, the ankylosaurs Dracopelta, Polacanthus and Struthiosaurus, and ornithopods like hypsilophodontids, basal iguanodontians (Rhabdodon), dryosaurids, camptosaurids (Draconyx and Camptosaurus), iguanodontids (Iguanodon) and hadrosaurids (Pararhabdodon). Some Incertae sedis and taxa in process of d...
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