Ornithopsis

''Ornithopsis'' (meaning "bird-likeness") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur, from the Early Cretaceous of England and possibly Germany. The type species, which is the only species seen as valid today, is ''O. hulkei,'' which is only known from fragmentary remains.

History of discovery

Gideon Algernon Mantell described many fossils that had been previously collected from the Tilgate Forest of the Early Cretaceous Wealden Formation in his 1833 paper on the geology of southeast England, including a bone he considered to be the of ''Iguanodon'', otherwise only known definitively from teeth that had been found in the area since 1822. The bone was redescribed by Richard Owen in 1854, who reaffirmed its referral as a quadrate of ''Iguanodon'', but also suggested it could be the same bone of '' Streptospondylus'' or ''Cetiosaurus'' as it was not directly associated with the characteristic teeth of ''Iguanodon''. This specimen is stored as British Museum of Natural History R2239, having been purchased from Mantell in 1838.

Specimen NHMUK PV R 28632, a similar bone to NHMUK PV R 2239 was described in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley, found in the deposits on the Isle of Wight and purchased from Mantell by the British Museum in 1853. Seeley properly identified the two fossils as , and noted that the features considered by Mantell and Owen to indicate the tympanic cavity was in fact openings in the walls of the vertebral , showing that the bones were invaded by cavities for air sacs as seen in both pterosaurs and modern birds. Seeley gave the name ''Ornithopsis hulkei'' for the vertebrae, named in honour of his colleague John Whitaker Hulke, considering the taxon to be between pterosaurs and birds, and possibly allied with dinosaurs. The genus name is derived from Greek , "bird" and , "likeness".

Owen revisited the material in 1875, where he described multiple new species within his new genus '' Bothriospondylus''. Agreeing with the vertebral identity of NHMUK PV R 2239, but considering it closer to the type species '' Bothriospondylus suffossus'' than any flying animal as Seeley had suggested, Owen gave the new species name '' Bothriospondylus elongatus'' for the specimen. For NHMUK PV R 28632, Owen named the new species ''Bothriospondylus magnus'', as he did not consider the two Wealden vertebrae to belong to the same taxon. Owen heavily disagreed with the interpretations of Seeley that the vertebrae were open and lightly constructed and showed relationships to birds and pterosaurs, considering the name ''Ornithopsis'' to be glaringly false and thus suggesting his new names should have priority over Seeley's older designations. Owen then reassigned ''B. magnus'' to the genus '' Chondrosteosaurus'' as ''Chondrosteosaurus magnus'' in 1876, considering it closely related to the type species '' Chondrosteosaurus gigas'' from the Wealden.

Hulke described additional sauropod material from the Wealden in 1879, and reevaluated the designations used by Owen and Seeley. Hulke identified NHMUK PV R 28632 as the type of ''O. hulkei'', rendering ''Bothriospondylus magnus'' and ''Chondrosteosaurus magnus'' as junior objective synonyms. As well, Hulke noted that the comment of Owen that the name ''Ornithopsis'' was misleading was false, as the vertebrae were lightly-constructed regardless of their relationships. Hulke also referred the genus '' Eucamerotus'', named earlier by him in 1870, and the genus ''Chondrosteosaurus'' to ''Ornithopsis'' as junior synonyms, with other fossils found in the Wealden beds showing that they all shared the unique internal structure of ''Ornithopsis''. Though William Blows identified in 1995 that most of the Wealden sauropod material has been designated as dubious or intermediate, the type vertebra of ''Ornithopsis'' shows unique features in its lateral compression and a ventral ridge, and represents a diagnostic titanosauriform.

In 2023, a fragmentary dorsal vertebra from the Balve in northwestern Germany, preserved in limestone dating to the Late Barremian-Early Aptian, was described. It was referred to ''Ornithopsis'' sp.? because it also possesses the lateral compression considered unique to ''Ornithopsis''. However, the poor preservation of the specimen makes the referral tentative.

Additional species

Hulke described pelvis material, NHMUK PV R 97, from the Wealden in 1882, found associated with a few vertebrae, as the new species ''Ornithopsis eucamerotus''. He retained ''Eucamerotus'' and ''Chondrosteosaurus'' as synonyms of ''Ornithopsis'', but suggested that ''O. hulkei'' should only contain the original vertebra NHMUK PV R 2239. The designation by Hulke of NHMUK PV R 2239 as type conflicted with his earlier assertion that NHMUK PV R 28632 was the type, so Lydekker corrected this in 1888 by formally designated NHMUK PV R 28632 as the only type with the consultation of Seeley.

Hulke described more material as ''Ornithopsis'' in 1887, for some vertebrae, ribs, a pelvis, and fragments collected in the Eyesbury Jurassic deposits of Northamptonshire by Alfred Nicholson Leeds. The vertebrae and pelvis showed many similarities with the specimens of ''Ornithopsis'' from the Wealden Group, but the much larger size of the Eyesbury specimens, their robusticity, and their older age were considered sufficient to describe as a new species, which Hulke named ''Ornithopsis leedsii'' after the discoverer Alfred Leeds. Hulke placed the genus within the sauropod family Atlantosauridae, suggesting a close relationship with '' Cetiosaurus oxoniensis''. The specimens named as ''Ornithopsis leedsii'' are stored as specimens NHMUK PV R 1985-1988, having been collected in May of 1892, and possibly being the first sauropod collected by Leeds and his brothers. Unlike the other specimens, ''O. leedsii'' came from the lower Callovian deposits of the Kellaways Formation below the Oxford Clay where most specimens were derived from.

Hulke described a found in 1868 by J.C. Mansel in the Kimmeridge Clay in 1869, considering it a large saurian possibly related to ''Cetiosaurus'' or ''Pelorosaurus''. He then gave it the name '' Ischyrosaurus'' in 1874, reiterating its close relationship to ''Cetiosaurus oxoniensis'', '' Cetiosaurus humerocristatus'', and '' Gigantosaurus''. Though it was not given a species name at the time, Richard Lydekker identified it as the species ''Ornithopsis manseli'' in 1887 based on an unpublished manuscript name provided by Hulke, as well as describing additional Wealden material as ''O. hulkei'', and suggesting ''Cetiosaurus humerocristatus'' was a synonym of ''O. leedsii''. ''Cetiosaurus oxoniensis'' was reassigned to ''Ornithopsis'' as ''O. oxoniensis'' in 1888 by Harry Govier Seeley, a proposal that was not endorsed at the time by Lydekker, who also suggested that ''O. leedsii'' and ''O. humerocristatus'' were possibly distinct based on a difference in age, but that ''Chondrosteosaurus'' and ''Ornithopsis eucamerotus'' were synonyms of ''O. hulkei''. ''Ornithopsis leedsii'' was referred to as the species ''Pelorosaurus leedsi'' by Lydekker in 1895, and as the taxon ''Cetiosaurus leedsi'' by Arthur Smith Woodward in the 1905, which are incorrect spellings of the species name.

''Cetiosaurus leedsii'' (spelled as "''leedsi''") had additional remains referred to it by Woodward in 1905, including the anterior caudal vertebrae NHMUK PV R 1984, the distal caudals NHMUK PV R 1967, and the posterior skeleton NHMUK PV R 3078, which preserved most of the arm, leg, pelvis, and vertebrae behind the shoulders. The species was assigned to ''Cetiosaurus'' as the vertebrae were differently textured, so Woodward considered an assignment to ''Cetiosaurus'' more proper. Friedrich von Huene did not think the referral of the species to ''Cetiosaurus'' should be supported, and referred to the taxon as "''Cetiosaurus''" ''leedsi''. Huene also described the species ''Ornithopsis'' (?) ''greppini'' in the same study in 1921, for a long-tailed cetiosaurid from Jurassic deposits around Bern, Switzerland. Huene retained ''O. greppini'' in the genus in an early 1927 review of sauropods, considering the genus to contain the species ''Ornithopsis hulkei'', ''O. leedsii'', ''O. humerocristatus'', ''O. manseli'', and ''O.'' (?) ''greppini'', with the genus representing taxon within Cetiosauridae alongside ''Cetiosaurus'', ''Bothriospondylus'', ''Pelorosaurus'', '' Dinodocus'', and possibly ''Rhoetosaurus'' and "'' Morosaurus''" '' brevis''. Later in the same year, Huene revised his classification, naming the new genus ''Cetiosauriscus'' for ''O. leedsii'' as described by Woodward, and ''O.'' (?) ''greppini''.

As the holotype material of ''Ornithopsis''/''Cetiosauriscus leedsii'' was not considered diagnostic, the more complete specimen NHMUK PV R 3078 was referred to the new taxon ''Cetiosauriscus stewarti'', which was then designated as the type species of ''Cetiosauriscus'' as it contained the material Huene had originally named the new genus for. ''Cetiosaurus leedsi'' was then assigned to an intermediate member of Brachiosauridae, considered to be a proper species of ''Ornithopsis'', or an improper species of ''Ornithopsis'' that is an indeterminate eusauropod. ''Ornithopsis greppini'' was given the new genus name '' Amanzia'' in a 2020 redescription of the original material.

As ''Ischyrosaurus'' was used earlier by Edward Drinker Cope for the non-mammalian genus '' Ischyrotherium'' in 1869, the name "Ischyrosaurus" cannot be used for ''I. manseli'', and so the species was retained as ''Ornithopsis manseli'' by David Martill and colleagues in 2006. The species has also been considered as ''Pelorosaurus manseli''. von Huene, F. (1909). Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier. ''Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie'' 1909:12-22. erman/ref> 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. Upchurch ''et al.'', in their review of sauropods (2004), listed it as a dubious sauropod.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. A 2010 overview of Late Jurassic sauropods from Dorset noted that ''O. manseli'' shared features seen in both Rebbachisauridae and Titanosauriformes, but lacked features to nail down its exact phylogenetic position.Paul M. Barrett, Roger B.J. Benson and Paul Upchurch (2010). "Dinosaurs of Dorset: Part II, the sauropod dinosaurs (Saurischia, Sauropoda) with additional comments on the theropods". Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 131: 113–126.

Description

The ''Ornithopsis hulkei'' holotype is basically a centrum lacking the neural spine. The vertebra is heavily pneumatised, filled with large cavities, camellae. It is narrow, tall, has a ridge on the underside, is opisthocoelous and has a posteriorly placed deep subtriangular pleurocoel over two thirds of its length. These features are compatible with a placement within the Titanosauriformes.

Based on comparison with ''Giraffatitan'', the holotype specimen is estimated to be in length, with the possible German specimen belonging to a slightly smaller individual.

References

External links

Discussion of ''Ornithopsis'' with image

{{Taxonbar, from=Q735811

Macronaria
Dinosaur genera
Barremian dinosaurs
Taxa named by Harry Seeley
Fossil taxa described in 1870
Dinosaurs of the United Kingdom