Liodon

''Liodon'' is a dubious genus of mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous, known from fragmentary fossils discovered in St James' Pit, England and possibly also the Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco. Though dubious and of uncertain phylogenetic affinities, ''Liodon'' was historically a highly important taxon in mosasaur systematics, being one of the genera on which the family Mosasauridae was based.

History

''Liodon anceps'' was first described as "''Leiodon anceps''" by Richard Owen in 1841, based only on two tooth fragments and a minor portion of the corresponding jaw bone discovered in Essex, England.Benjamin Creisler
Mosasauridae Translation and Pronunciation Guide
. Dinosauria.com. Retrieved 2008-04-07. The name ''Leiodon'' derived from the Greek ''leios'' ("smooth") and ''-odon'' ("tooth"), meaning "smooth tooth" on account of the "smooth and polished surface" of the fossil teeth. The specific name ''anceps'' means "two-edged", referencing the carinae (cutting edges) on both the front and back of the teeth. In 1845, Owen noted that the teeth he assigned to ''Leiodon'' were more reminiscent of those of ''Mosasaurus'' than any other reptile and in 1851 placed both genera in the new clade Natantia within the suborder Lacertilia.

In 1846, Louis Agassiz noted that the generic name ''Leiodon'' was already preoccupied by the fish '' Leiodon'' (described in 1839) and consequently changed the spelling to ''Liodon'', which carries the same meaning. In 1853, ''Liodon'' was one of the original genera included in the definition of the family Mosasauridae by Paul Gervais. The other genera initially included in the family were ''Mosasaurus'', ''Onchosaurus'' (later recognized to have been a batoid fish), ''Oplosaurus'' (a sauropod dinosaur), ''Macrosaurus'' (a historical mosasaur "wastebasket taxon") and ''Geosaurus'' (a thalattosuchian crocodyliform).

Over the course of the later nineteenth century, more species of ''Liodon'' were described. In addition to material later assigned to ''Tylosaurus'', the three most enduring species assigned to ''Liodon'' were ''L. sectorius'' in 1871 and ''L. mosasauroides'' and ''L. compressidens'' in 1892. These species were based on more well-preserved material than ''L. anceps'' and gave ''Liodon'' a worldwide distribution, with material being assigned to ''L. mosasauroides'' from France and ''L. sectorius'' from New Jersey and the Netherlands. Another species, ''L. asiaticum'', was described in 1915 based on fragmentary fossils found near Jerusalem. In addition to these species, isolated teeth from various locations, including Poland, the Netherlands and Morocco, have also been assigned to ''Liodon'' in the past.

In 1952, Camille Arambourg assigned isolated fossil teeth discovered in the Maastrichtian-age phosphates of Morocco to ''Mosasaurus'' (''Leiodon'') cf. ''anceps''. A review of the Moroccan mosasaur material conducted in 2015 by Nathalie Bardet and colleagues determined that no material assignable to ''Liodon'' was present, referring the small teeth assigned to ''L. anceps'' by Arambourg to '' Eremiasaurus heterodontus'' and the large teeth to an as of yet undescribed species of ''Prognathodon''.

In 1993, Theagarten Lingam-Soliar argued that ''Liodon'' was a distinct genus and definable on account of its highly specialized teeth, which Lingham-Soliar believed made it "probably the most efficient in the Mosasauridae for tearing off chunks of soft bodied prey such as fishes and other marine reptiles". Lingham-Soliar also suggested that a mosasaur skeleton from Japan otherwise identified as '' Mosasaurus hobetsuensis'' could be a ''Liodon'' specimen.

''L. compressidens'', ''L. mosasauroides'' and ''L. sectorius'' were reassigned as species of ''Prognathodon'' by Schulp ''et al''. (2008). This reassignment followed from the discovery that the ''L. anceps'' type specimen was presently missing all tooth material (and as a result all of its supposedly diagnostic features), rendering it a ''nomen dubium'', and from the description of the ''Prognathodon'' species ''P. kianda'' from Angola. The teeth of ''P. kianda'' had a highly similar morphology to those of the three ''Liodon'' species, meaning that they were determined as falling within the range of variation of the genus. In 2014, Palci et al. suggested that ''Liodon'' should be synonymized with ''Mosasaurus'' on account of the differences between the two mostly being in the form of tooth morphology, otherwise "consistent with differentiation at the species level only". Palci et al. also put forth the idea that ''L. anceps'' and the three species assigned to ''Prognathodon'' in 2008 were more closely related to each other and to ''Mosasaurus'' than either was to ''Prognathodon'', though made no formal taxonomic revisions. A 2021 analysis of the ''L. asiaticum'' material determined ''L. asiaticum'' to be a nomen dubium and reclassified its fossils as Mosasaurini ''incertae sedis'' after determining them to be non-diagnostic and close to ''Mosasaurus'' and ''Plotosaurus''.

Classification

Dale Russell classified ''Liodon'' within the Mosasaurini tribe of the Mosasaurinae subfamily in 1967 owing to the "great resemblance" of the fossils of ''L. mosasauroides'' to ''Mosasaurus''. Over the course of the late 19th and early 20th century, several researchers, including Albert Gaudry in 1892 and Per-Ove Persson in 1959, suggested that ''L. anceps'' (but not any of the other species) were congeneric with the tylosaurine genus ''Hainosaurus'', which Russell also believed was a possibility.''''

Despite this, ''Liodon'' is traditionally (with or without any species in addition to ''L. anceps'') maintained in the Mosasaurinae on account of the small differences separating it from ''Mosasaurus''. Schulp et al. conceived ''L. anceps'' as a basally branching close relative of ''Prognathodon''.

See also

* List of mosasaur genera
* Timeline of mosasaur research

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous

Mosasaurids
Mosasaurs of Europe
Fossil taxa described in 1846
Taxa named by Louis Agassiz