''Sarcolestes'' (meaning "flesh robber") is an extinct

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 ...

ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

n ornithischian dinosaur from the

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The current type and only species is ''S. leedsi'', and the holotype is a single partial left

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

. The genus and species were named in

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

Richard Lydekker Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. Biography Richard Lydekker was born at Tavistock Square in London. His father was Gerard Wolfe Lydekker, ...

, who thought they belonged to a theropod.

Discovery

''Sarcolestes'' was first named in

, and its

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 ...

was designated as ''S. leedsi''. The specific name was to honour

Alfred Nicholson Leeds Alfred Nicholson Leeds (9 March 184725 August 1917) was an English amateur palaeontologist. Biography Leeds was born at Eyebury, Peterborough, the youngest of the eight children of Edward Thurlow Leeds (180251) and Eliza Mary Leeds (née Nichol ...

, the discoverer of the specimen, and many others like it. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

and only specimen, is a partial left

and fused scute that was damaged during excavation. The jaw preserved one entire tooth and two crown tips in its

alveolus Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * Mam ...

, with the missing bone in the central section of the mandible. It lacks a preserved

predentary Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek st ...

, even though the entire mandibular symphysis is preserved and complete.

Classification

Originally, Lydekker found that ''Sarcolestes'' represented a theropod. He cited lack of a predentary as excluding the taxon from ornithopods, and tooth morphology as excluding it from sauropods. Within theropods, it was found to be sufficiently different from one main groups of theropods including ''

Coelurus ''Coelurus'' ( ) is a genus of coelurosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period (mid-late Kimmeridgian faunal stage, 155–152 million years ago). The name means "hollow tail", referring to its hollow tail vertebrae ( Greek κο� ...

'', '' Calamosaurus'', and ''

Compsognathus ''Compsognathus'' (; Ancient Greek, Greek ''kompsos''/κομψός; "elegant", "refined" or "dainty", and ''gnathos''/γνάθος; "jaw") is a genus of small, bipedalism, bipedal, carnivore, carnivorous theropoda, theropod dinosaur. Members o ...

'', and the megalosaurids including ''

Megalosaurus ''Megalosaurus'' (meaning "great lizard", from Greek , ', meaning 'big', 'tall' or 'great' and , ', meaning 'lizard') is an extinct genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period (Bathonian stage, 166 million years ...

''. Thus, Lydekker placed it in

Thecodontosauridae Thecodontosauridae is a family of basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs that are part of the Bagualosauria, known from fossil remains found exclusively in the Magnesian Conglomerate of Bristol, England,Thecodontosaurus ''Thecodontosaurus'' ("socket-tooth lizard") is a genus of herbivorous basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the late Triassic period ( Rhaetian age). Its remains are known mostly from Triassic "fissure fillings" in South England. ''Th ...

''. Lydekker noted that ''Sarcolestes'' was similar in dental morphology to ''

Priodontognathus ''Priodontognathus'' (meaning "saw tooth jaw") was a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur possibly from the Oxfordian-age Upper Jurassic Lower Calcareous Grit of Yorkshire, England. It is a dubious genus based on a maxilla, and has been erroneousl ...

'', and that together they might be shown to be related to scelidosaurids. However, he also noted that together they may represent their own group within Theropoda. In 1901, Franz Nopcsa found that ''Sarcolestes'' was in fact herbivorous, and classified it in

Stegosauridae Stegosauridae is a family of thyreophoran dinosaurs (armoured dinosaurs) within the suborder Stegosauria. The clade is defined as all species of dinosaurs more closely related to ''Stegosaurus'' than '' Huayangosaurus''.David B. Weishampel, Pete ...

with genera such as ''

Polacanthus ''Polacanthus'', deriving its name from the Ancient Greek polys-/πολύς- "many" and akantha/ἄκανθα "thorn" or "prickle", is an early armoured, spiked, plant-eating ankylosaurian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period of England. In ...

'', ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...

'', ''

Hylaeosaurus ''Hylaeosaurus'' ( ; Greek: / "belonging to the forest" and / "lizard") is a herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived about 136 million years ago, in the late Valanginian stage of the early Cretaceous period of England. It was found ...

'', ''

Stenopelix ''Stenopelix'' (meaning "narrow pelvis") is a genus of small marginocephalian dinosaur, possibly a basal ceratopsian, from the Early Cretaceous of Germany. It lived in the late Berriasian Stage of the Cretaceous period, approximately 140 myr ag ...

'' and various others.

Peter Galton Peter Malcolm Galton (born 14 March 1942 in London) is a British vertebrate paleontologist who has to date written or co-written about 190 papers in scientific journals or chapters in paleontology textbooks, especially on ornithischian and prosa ...

concluded that ''Sarcolestes'' represents a genus within

Nodosauridae Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period in what is now North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Description Nodosaurids, like their close relatives the ankylosaurids, we ...

, with a dentary similar to that of '' Sauropelta''. However, others have cast doubt on this assignment and even the validity of ''Sarcolestes''. ''Sarcolestes'' was likely related to the only other known ankylosaurians alive at the same time during the Middle Jurassic, '' Spicomellus'' and '' Tianchisaurus''.

References

{{Thyreophora, N. Ankylosaurs Bathonian life Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Europe Jurassic England Fossils of England Oxford Clay Fossil taxa described in 1893 Taxa named by Richard Lydekker Ornithischian genera

Discovery

Classification

See also

References