Neosodon Praecursor

''Neosodon'' (meaning "new tooth") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Sables et Gres a Trigonia gibbosa of Départment du Pas-de-Calais, 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. rench/ref> 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. rench/ref>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. 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. 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.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. rench/ref> 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. 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 .36 intall and a cross-section of in its incomplete state, estimated at 80 mm .15 intall if complete) and spear-like or spatulate in shape. The owner would have been a large, quadrupedal herbivore.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2030683

Sauropods
Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Europe
Fossil taxa described in 1885