''Draconyx'' (meaning "dragon claw") 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 ...

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 Late

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

. It was an

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous wo ...

which lived in what is now

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and was a herbivore. It was found in the

Lourinhã Formation The Lourinhã Formation () is a fossil rich geological formation in western Portugal, named for the municipality of Lourinhã. The formation is mostly Late Jurassic in age (Kimmeridgian/Tithonian), with the top of the formation extending into the ...

in 1991, and described by

Octávio Mateus Octávio Mateus (born 1975) is a Portuguese dinosaur paleontologist and biologist Professor of Paleontology at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He graduated in Universidade de Évora and received his PhD at U ...

and Miguel Telles Antunes in 2001.

Etymology

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 ...

, known from only partial remains, is ''Draconyx loureiroi''. The generic name is derived from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''draco'', "dragon", and

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

ὄνυξ, ''onyx'', "claw". The specific name is in honour of

João de Loureiro João de Loureiro (1717, Lisbon – 18 October 1791) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and botanist. Biography After receiving admission to the Jesuit Order, João de Loureiro served as a missionary in Goa, capital of Portuguese India (3 y ...

, a Portuguese jesuit priest, a pioneer in Portuguese palaeontology.

Material

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

, ML 357, a partial skeleton lacking the skull, consists of two maxillary teeth, three caudal centra, one chevron, a distal epiphysis of right humerus, one manual phalanx, three manual unguals, a distal epiphysis of the right femur, the proximal and distal epiphyses of the tibia and fibula, an astragalus, a calcanaeum, three tarsals, four metatarsals and pedal phalanges. It was in 1991 found at

Vale de Frades A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipa ...

Carlos Anunciação Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewher ...

of the Museu da Lourinhã, in layers of the

Bombarral Unit Bombarral () is a municipality in the District of Leiria in Central Portugal. The population in 2011 was 13,193, in an area of . It includes four civil parishes ( pt, freguesia) that provide local services. History It is known that the area of B ...

dating to the Tithonian. Histology shows that the holotype specimen was between 27 and 31 years old. A left femur (ML 434), found near

Praia do Caniçal Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Gregory S. Paul Gregory Scott Paul (born December 24, 1954) is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology, and more recently has examined sociology and theology. He is best known for his work and research on theropod dino ...

in 2010 estimated the length at 3.5 metres, the weight at 150 kilograms.

Systematics

According to Mateus and Antunes (2001), ''Draconyx loureiroi'' is a member of the

Iguanodontia Iguanodontia (the iguanodonts) is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include ''Camptosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Iguanodon'', '' Tenontosaurus'', and the hadrosaurids or "duck-bil ...

, more specifically the Camptosauridae, based on the maxillary teeth, which have a strong vertical primary ridge on the distal side of the labial crown, and the

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...

, which is curved and has a prominent lesser trochanter. A article in 2022 places ''Draconyx'' as a Styracosterna.

Notes

External links

Mateus, O. & Antunes, M.T. (2001). "''Draconyx loureiroi'', a new Camptosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Late Jurassic of Lourinhã, Portugal". ''Annales de Paleontologie'', 87(1): 61-73
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1954594 Iguanodonts Tithonian life Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Europe Jurassic Portugal Fossils of Portugal Lourinhã Formation Fossil taxa described in 2001 Taxa named by Octávio Mateus Taxa named by Miguel Telles Antunes Ornithischian genera