''Archaeodontosaurus'' ("ancient-toothed lizard") is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
sauropod dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
from the
Middle Jurassic. Its fossils were found in the
Isalo III Formation
The Isalo III Formation is a geological formation in Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. It dates back to the Middle Jurassic.Weishampel et al., 2004, pp.542-543 The use of the term "Isalo III" is somewhat controversial as the two prior u ...
of
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
. The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
, ''Archaeodontosaurus descouensi'', was described in September 2005. The
specific name honours the collector,
Didier Descouens. It is a probable sauropod, with
prosauropod
Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had l ...
-like teeth.
[Éric Buffetaut. 2005. A new sauropod dinosaur with prosauropod-like teeth from the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar. ''Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France'', 176(5), 467-473.] It may be a basal member of
Gravisauria
Gravisauria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs consisting of some genera, Vulcanodontidae and Eusauropoda.Allain, R. and Aquesbi, N. (2008). "Anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of ''Tazoudasaurus naimi'' (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the late Ea ...
.
References
External links
dml.cmnh.org*
Sauropods
Dinosaurs of India and Madagascar
Middle Jurassic dinosaurs of Africa
Bajocian life
Bathonian life
Fossil taxa described in 2005
Taxa named by Éric Buffetaut
Fossils of Madagascar
{{Sauropodomorph-stub