Neosodon
{{Short description|Extinct genus of dinosaurs}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range = Late Tithonian, {{fossilrange|146}}
| image = Neosodon teeth.JPG
| image_caption = Neosodon teeth
| taxon = Neosodon
| authority = Moussaye, 1885
}}
Neosodon (meaning "new tooth") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Sables et Gres a Trigonia gibbosa of Pas-de-Calais department, France.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Jurassic, Europe)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 545–549. {{ISBN|0-520-24209-2}}[http://www.elsevier.fr/html/news/PALEVO_02.pdf Dinosaurs of France] It has never been formally given a species name, but is often seen as N. praecursor, which actually comes from a different animal. Often in the past, it had been assigned to the wastebasket taxon Pelorosaurus, but restudy has suggested that it could be related to Turiasaurus, a roughly contemporaneous giant Spanish sauropod. It is only known from six teeth.
History and taxonomy
Moussaye named this genus for a large, broken, worn tooth found in Wilmille, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, and neglected to give it a species name. He thought that it belonged to a theropod like Megalosaurus.Moussaye, M. de la. (1885). Sur une dent de Neosodon, trouvée dans les sables ferruginaux de Wilmille. Bulletin, Société Géologique de France 3(13):51-53. [French] Since then, five more teeth have been found and assigned to Neosodon.
Sauvage synonymized it with his tooth species Iguanodon praecursor,Sauvage, H.E. (1888). Sur les reptiles trouvés dans le Portlandian supérieur de Boulogne-sur-mer. Bulletin du Muséum National d'Historie Naturalle, Paris. 3(16):626. [French]*[https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=65153 Paleobiology Database entry]; see Taxonomic History for some idea of the confusion regarding "I." praecursor which by this time had become mixed up with Edward Drinker Cope's roughly contemporaneous American Morrison Formation genus Caulodon (now a synonym of Camarasaurus). However, the two are not based on the same type, as "I". praecursor comes from slightly older rocks: the same unnamed Kimmeridgian formation as Morinosaurus.Weishampel, D.B., Barrett, P.M., Coria, R.A., Le Loeuff, J., Xu Xing, Zhao Xijin, Sahni, A., Gomani, E.M.P., and Noto, C.R. (2004). Dinosaur Distribution: in Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H., (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press:Berkeley 517-606. {{ISBN|0-520-24209-2}} Earlier reviews (Romer, 1956; Steel, 1970) accepted it as a synonym of Pelorosaurus, and considered it a possible brachiosaurid.Romer, A.S. (1956). Osteology of the Reptiles. University of Chicago Press:Chicago 1-772. {{ISBN|0-89464-985-X}}Steel, R. (1970). Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Part 14. Gustav Fischer Verlag:Stuttgart p. 1-87.
In the 1990s, French researchers published on new camarasaurid bones from the same formation. At first, Buffetaut and Martin (1993) suggested that they belonged to Neosodon praecursor,Buffetaut, E., and Martin, M. (1993). Late Jurassic dinosaurs from the Boulonnais (northern France): a review. Revue de Paléobiologie, Volume spéciale 7:17-28. but Le Loeuff et al. (1996) later rejected this, as Neosodon is based only on several teeth, which did not overlap the new material.[http://dinonews.net/rubriq/docs/1996_vertebre_camarasaurides_leloeuff.pdf Le Loeuff, J., Buffetaut, E., and Merser, C. (1996).] Discovery of a Tithonian sauropod dinosaur in Charente (western France). Géologie de la France 2:79-81. [French] The latest review accepted both Neosodon and "Iguanodon" praecursor as dubious sauropods.Upchurch, P.M., Barrett, P.M., and Dodson, P. (2004). Sauropoda. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press:Berkeley 259-322. {{ISBN|0-520-24209-2}} However, Royo-Torres et al. (2006), in their description of Turiasaurus, noted that this tooth was similar to those of their genus and suggested that it could be a turiasaur.Royo-Torres, R., Cobos, A., and Alcalá, L. (2006). A giant European dinosaur and a new sauropod clade. Science 314:1925-1927.
Paleobiology
The teeth referred to Neosodon are large (60 mm [2.36 in] tall and a cross-section of {{convert|35|by|20|mm|in|abbr=on}} in its incomplete state, estimated at 80 mm [3.15 in] tall if complete) and spear-like or spatulate in shape. The owner would have been a large, quadrupedal herbivore.
References
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