Apatodon
| Apatodon Temporal range: Late Jurassic,
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| Genus: | Apatodon Marsh, 1877
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Apatodon is a dubious genus of dinosaur.
When Marsh named it, he thought it was a jaw with a tooth from a Mesozoic pig, but it was soon shown that the specimen was an eroded vertebra, from a dinosaur possibly from the Morrison Formation of Garden Park, Colorado.[1] Marsh had misidentified the neural spine as the tooth of a pig-like animal (Baur, 1890).
The only recovered specimen is not regarded as sufficient to identify a particular species of dinosaur. However, George Olshevsky considered Apatodon to be synonymous with Allosaurus fragilis.[2] The issue is now beyond resolution; however, as the type bone fragment has been lost.[3]
The name was derived from Greek: απατη ("trick", "deceit") and οδους (genitive οδοντος) ("tooth", in reference to its original, incorrect identification).
References
- ^ Marsh, 1877. Notice of some new vertebrate fossils. American Journal of Arts and Sciences. 14, 249-256.
- ^ Olshevsky, 1991. A revision of the parainfraclass Archosauria Cope, 1869, excluding the advanced Crocodylia. Mesozoic Meanderings. 2, 196 pp.
- ^ http://theropoddatabase.com/Non-theropods.htm#Apatodonmirus
- Baur, G. 1890. A review of the charges against the paleontological department of the U.S. Geological Survey and of the defense made by Prof. O.C. Marsh. American Naturalist 24:288-204.
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