''Zanclodon'' ("scythe tooth") is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

archosauriform Archosauriformes (Greek for 'ruling lizards', and Latin for 'form') is a clade of diapsid reptiles that developed from archosauromorph ancestors some time in the Latest Permian (roughly 252 million years ago). It was defined by Jacques Gauthier ...

found in

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

deposits in southern Germany.

Taxonomy

''Zanclodon'' was originally named ''

Smilodon ''Smilodon'' is a genus of the extinct machairodont subfamily of the felids. It is one of the most famous prehistoric mammals and the best known saber-toothed cat. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related ...

'' by Plieninger (1846), but this name had previously been used for the

saber-toothed cat Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 million until ...

(a preoccupied name), prompting Plieninger to erect the replacement name ''Zanclodon''. It was formerly placed in the Teratosauridae, within the

Theropoda Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally ca ...

, and at times, plateosaurid material was mistakenly referred to ''Zanclodon'' (see Galton 2001). 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 specimen ...

, ''Zanclodon laevis'', is based on a left

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

that represents an indeterminate archosaurian. Therefore, the genus is not unambiguously identifiable.Galton, P.M. (2001). The prosauropod dinosaur ''Plateosaurus'' Meyer, 1837 (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha; Upper Triassic). II. Notes on the referred species. ''Revue de Paléobiologie'', Genève 20(2): 435–502.

Species

* ''Z. laevis'' (Plieninger, 1846) riginally "Smilodon"( type) * ''Z. crenatus'' (Plieninger, 1846) riginally "Smilodon"* ''Z. bavaricus'' (Fraas, 1894 vide Sandberger, 1894) =

Sauropodomorpha 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 lon ...

incertae sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' * ''Z. plieningeri'' (Fraas, 1896) = junior synonym of ''Z. laevis'' * ''Z. arenaceus'' (Fraas, 1896) = a possible parasuchian * ''Z. cambrensis'' (Newton, 1899) = '"''

Newtonsaurus This list of informally named dinosaurs is a listing of dinosaurs (excluding Aves; birds and their extinct relatives) that have never been given formally published scientific names. This list only includes names that were not properly published ...

''" (Welles & Pickering, 1993) – ''nomen nudum'', known from a lower jaw with teeth preserved as a mould in South Wales,

indet. * ''Z. schutzii'' (Fraas, 1900) = ''

Batrachotomus ''Batrachotomus'' is a genus of prehistoric archosaur. Fossils of this animal have been found in southern Germany and dated from the Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic period, around 242 to 237 million years ago. ''Batrachotomus'' was descri ...

'' * ''Z. silesiacus'' ( Jaekel, 1910) = ''nomen dubium'' at Archosauromorpha indeterminate

References

* Fraas, E. (1900). ''Zanclodon schützii'' n. sp. aus dem Trigonodusdolomit von Hall 'Zanclodon schützii'' n. sp. from the Trigonodus-dolomite of Halle ''Jahreshefte des Vereins für Vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg'' 56: 510–513. * Hagdorn, H. & Mutter, R.J. (2011). The vertebrate fauna of the Lower Keuper Albertibank (Erfurt Formation, Middle Triassic) in the vicinity of Schwäbisch Hall (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). ''Palaeodiversity'' 4: 223–243. * Jaekel, O. (1910). Ueber einen neuen Belodonten aus dem Buntsandstein von Bernburg n a new belodontid from the Buntsandstein of Bernburg ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'' 1910 (5): 197-229 * Newton, E.T. (1899). On a megalosaurid jaw from Rhaetic beds near Bridgend (Glamorganshire). ''Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London'' 55: 89–96. * Schoch, R.R. (2011). New archosauriform remains from the German Lower Keuper. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen'' 260: 87–100. . {{Paleo-archosaur-stub Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1846 Prehistoric reptile genera