Paranthodon

Paranthodon is a genus of stegosaurian dinosaur that lived in what is now South Africa during the Early Cretaceous, between 139 and 131 million years ago. Discovered in 1845, its only remains, a partial skull, isolated teeth, and fragments of vertebrae, were found in the Kirkwood Formation. British paleontologist Richard Owen initially identified the fragments as those of the pareiasaur Anthodon. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek para with the genus name Anthodon, to represent the initial referral of the remains. In 1981, the genus was reviewed with modern taxonomic techniques, and found to be a valid genus. A 2018 review of Paranthodon could only identify one distinguishing feature

About Paranthodon in brief

Paranthodon is a genus of stegosaurian dinosaur that lived in what is now South Africa during the Early Cretaceous, between 139 and 131 million years ago. Discovered in 1845, its only remains, a partial skull, isolated teeth, and fragments of vertebrae, were found in the Kirkwood Formation. British paleontologist Richard Owen initially identified the fragments as those of the pareiasaur Anthodon. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek para with the genus name Anthodon, to represent the initial referral of the remains. In 1981, the genus was reviewed with modern taxonomic techniques, and found to be a valid genus. A 2018 review of Paranthodon could only identify one distinguishing feature, and while that study still referred it to Stegosaurusia based on similarity and multiple phylogenetic analyses, no diagnostic features of the group could be identified in Paranthodons. Both names are now synonyms of the current binomial, ParAnthodon africanus. The specific name was later emended to owenii, in honouring Owen, and later brought into the current nomenclature by Walter Coombs in 1971 as his dissertation as nomen Clomenus Paranthrodus Owenii, derived from the generic name para, meaning ‘near orbeside’ and Latin para, or ‘beside’, meaning’similar’ or ‘near to’ The genus was named after the specific name of Owen, who named it Anthodon serrarius, on the basis of the resemblance of the teeth to a flower.

It is one of the first dinosaur finds in Africa and in the Southern Hemisphere, and was the first to be named by a palaeontologist in London. It was the last dinosaur find in the UK, until the discovery of the Tyrannosaurus rex in the early 20th century. The fossils were found near Dassieklip, Cape Province, in the Bushman’s River Valley, in South Africa. The partial holotype skull BMNH 47337, the left jaw BM NH 47338, the matrix BMNH47338 including bone fragments and impressions of the anterior skull, and a partial upper jaw of a dinosaur were all assigned toAnthodon. In 1882, Othniel Charles Marsh assigned Anthodon to StEGosauridae. In 1890, Richard Lydekker found that although Anthodon was a pareiaaur, its teeth were similar to those of Stegosaurus. In 1912, M. D. Watson believed that the jaw should be differentiated from Anthodon as it was not similar to the teeth of the other two species. In 1929, Franz Nopcsa, unaware of Broom’s new name, similarly concluded that it represented a new taxon, and named it Paranthdon owenII.

Related posts:

Parasaurolophus Stegoceras Massospondylus Allosaurus