''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 ...

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