''Nicolia'' 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 n ...

fossilized wood Fossil wood, also known as fossilized tree, is wood that is preserved in the fossil record. Over time the wood will usually be the part of a plant that is best preserved (and most easily found). Fossil wood may or may not be petrified, ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

(

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. ...

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campani ...

). At one time, specimens were misidentified as a jaw fragments of a

hadrosaur Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which inclu ...

and named ''Aachenosaurus''.H. N. Andrews. (1970). Index of Generic Names of Fossil Plants, 1820-1965. ''Geological Survey Bulletin'' 1-354

Taxonomy

The genus and sole species ''Nicolia aegyptiaca'' were named in 1842 by Unger. Independently in 1887, the name ''Aachenosaurus'' was created by the scientist (and

abbé ''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...

)

Gerard Smets Gerard Smets (-after 1895) was a Belgian paleontologist, scientist, and abbé known for the misidentification of the plant genus ''Aachenosaurus'', named after the locale of Aachen. Biography He was born around 1857, possibly in Gotem, Belgium, ...

based on

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

ized fragments of material that he thought were jaw fragments from a duck-billed

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 ...

). However, the fossils turned out to be

petrified wood Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of '' fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ' ...

, to the great embarrassment of the discoverer. The name ''Aachenosaurus'' means " Aachen lizard", named for the

Aachen Formation The Aachen Formation ( nl, Formatie van Aken, german: Aachen-Formation) is an Upper Cretaceous geologic formation in the southern Netherlands and northeastern Belgium and adjacent Germany.Moresnet Neutral Moresnet (, , , ) was a small Belgian–Prussian condominium in western Europe that existed from 1816 to 1920 and was administered jointly by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (Belgium after its independence in 1830) and the Kingdom ...

(which was a

neutral territory Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

between

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

), where the fossils were found. Smets considered that the specimen was a

reaching an estimated 4 to 5 meters in length which might have had dermal spines. He defended this conclusion, citing that the fossils had been examined visually with the naked eye, magnifying lenses and with the microscope. However, his error was soon demonstrated by

Louis Dollo Louis Antoine Marie Joseph Dollo ( Lille, 7 December 1857 – Brussels, 19 April 1931) was a Belgian palaeontologist, known for his work on dinosaurs. He also posited that evolution is not reversible, known as Dollo's law. Together with the Aust ...

. Smets at first tried to defend his original identification but was again proven wrong by a neutral commission. A rumor abounded that he completely withdrew from science out of pure embarrassment, but not until he had published a paper on

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked ...

s in 1889; this rumor was later proven false. The last paper he published was in 1895. ''Aachenosaurus'' is considered to be a synonym of the earlier published name ''Nicolia''. A synonym of ''Aachenosaurus'' is ''Aachenoxylon'', which was coined by Dr Maurice Hovelacque in 1889/1890.

References

External links

uBio listingNomenclator Zoologicus listing
Late Cretaceous plants Mesozoic trees Fossil taxa described in 1842 {{cretaceous-plant-stub