Poekilopleuron bucklandii, the theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Normandy

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Poekilopleuron bucklandii, described by Eudes-Deslongchamps in 1838, is one of the earliest discovered dinosaurs. Although incomplete, it is one of the best preserved Middle Jurassic theropods known from Europe. Unfortunately, the only specimen of P. bucklandii, housed in the Muse Âe de la Faculte  des Sciences de Caen, was destroyed during World War II. However, casts of some parts of the type skeleton have been found in the collections of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. These casts and Eudes-Deslongchamps' monograph are used to redescribe the specimen. Poekilopleuron shares one synapomorphy with the Spinosauroidea and we tentatively assign it to that clade. The possible synonymy between Poekilopleuron and Megalosaurus is examined and we conclude that Megalosaurus is a nomen dubium and that the name should be restricted to the type dentary.

THE TAXONOMIC STATUS OF MEGALOSAURUS BUCKLANDII (DINOSAURIA, THEROPODA) FROM THE MIDDLE JURASSIC OF OXFORDSHIRE, UK

“…Allain and Chure (2002), however, proposed that multiple taxa were represented in the large theropod material from the Stonesfield Slate, an observation confirmed by Day and Barrett (2004). It was suggested that the taxon should be restricted to the lectotype dentary (OUMNH J.13505) and it was recommended that Megalosaurus , as formerly considered, should not be included in cladistic analyses as such analyses would be utilising a chimera (Allain and Chure, 2002). The latter authors also failed to find diagnostic features of the dentary and thus considered Megalosaurus to be a nomen dubium .…”

“…(1990) formally proposed designation of the dentary (OUMNH J.13505) as the lectotype, rendering the rest of the syntype series paralectotypes. However, as none of the paralectotypes can be convincingly referred to the same taxon as the lectotype dentary we follow Allain and Chure (2002) in restricting the hypodigm of Megalosaurus bucklandii to the lectotype pending the discovery of additional comparable material.…”

The postcranial skeleton ofMonolophosaurus jiangi(Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Middle Jurassic of Xinjiang, China, and a review of Middle Jurassic Chinese theropods

“…All of these remains have been assigned to tetanurans (Allain & Chure, 2002;Holtz, Molnar & Currie, 2004), and confirmed non-tetanuran theropods from the Middle Jurassic are unknown (Tykoski & Rowe, 2004;Carrano & Sampson, 2008; but see Rauhut, 2005b). All of the taxa represented by this material have been recovered as members of Tetanurae by numerous phylogenetic analyses (Allain, 2002;Rauhut, 2003;Holtz, Molnar & Currie, 2004).…”

A re-evaluation of the historical ‘dinosaur’ remains from the Middle-Upper Triassic of Poland

“…Distal to that, the groove is deeper than in the proximal part. Incomplete fibula of Poekilopleuron also bears a concavity on its medial surface that seems to flatten more distally (Eudes-Deslongchamps 1838; Allain & Chure 2002). Anteroposterior expansion of the proximal part of fibula of Baryonyx seems to be much broader anteroposteriorly than in Velocipes.…”