Picrodon
{{Short description|Possible dinosaur genus}}
{{Disputed|date=October 2020}}
{{Speciesbox
| fossil_range = Late Triassic, {{fossilrange|Rhaetian|latest=190}}
| image = Picrodon_holotype_tooth.png
| image_upright = 0.6
| image_caption = Holotype tooth
| parent_authority = Seeley, 1898
| taxon = Picrodon herveyi
| authority = Seeley, 1898
| display_parents = 2
| synonyms =
}}
Picrodon is the name given to a genus of archosaur, possibly a sauropodomorph dinosaur,{{Cite journal|last=Galton|first=Peter M.|date=1985|title=Notes on the Melanorosauridae, a family of large Prosauropod Dinosaurs (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha)|journal=Geobios|volume=18|issue=5|pages=671–676|doi=10.1016/s0016-6995(85)80065-6|bibcode=1985Geobi..18..671G |issn=0016-6995}} from the Rhaetian of England which was possibly synonymous with the dubious archosaur Avalonianus.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} The type, and only species, P. herveyi, was named in 1898.H. G. Seeley. 1898. On large terrestrial saurians from the Rhaetic Beds of Wedmore Hill, described as Avalonia sanfordi and Picrodon herveyi. Geological Magazine, decade 4 5:1-6
Discovery and naming
File:Picrodon_tooth_three_angles.png
In 1894, W. A. Sanford described the fossil remains of what he considered to be two large reptiles discovered near Westbury-on-Severn, Glastonbury (Westbury Formation) by Eev. Sydenham H. A. Hervey and Sanford himself.Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological Society - vol. xl, 1894, p. 234 Harry Govier Seeley described the fossils and named two genera: Avalonia (preoccupied; now Avalonianus) and Picrodon; both are based solely on teeth.
Only a single tooth, holotype BMNH R2875, belonging to P. herveyi is known, making the remains insufficient to make judgments on its diet or its classification; although it is agreed that Picrodon was an archosaur to some degree.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}
Classification
Sanford (1894) classified Picrodon as a reptile, while Seeley (1898) classified Picrodon as a saurian. More modern research however almost certainly places Picrodon within Archosauria;{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} Peter Malcolm Galton (1985) suggested that Picrodon may have been a basal sauropodomorph. Currently, its exact phylogenetic placement within Archosauria remains unknown.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}
References
{{Portal|Dinosaurs}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q104840761}}
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1898
{{archosaur-stub}}
{{triassic-reptile-stub}}
{{paleo-archosaur-stub}}