''Zanclodon'' ("scythe tooth") is an extinct
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
archosauriform from the
Erfurt Formation in southern Germany. It was once a wastebasket taxon until a taxonomic revision by Schoch (2011) left only the paratype (SMNS 6045) within ''Zanclodon laevis'' proper.
[Schoch, R.R. (2011). New archosauriform remains from the German Lower Keuper. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen'' 260: 87–100. .] The type species is ''Z. laevis''.
Discovery and naming
The
paratype
In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...
, SMNS 56045, a maxilla with teeth, was discovered in the
Gaildorf Alumn Mine in southern
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
''Zanclodon'' was originally named ''
Smilodon
''Smilodon'' is an extinct genus of Felidae, felids. It is one of the best known saber-toothed predators and prehistoric mammals. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats ...
'' by Plieninger (1846), but this name had previously been used for the
saber-toothed cat
Machairodontinae (from Ancient Greek μάχαιρα '' machaira,'' a type of Ancient Greek sword and ὀδόντος ''odontos'' meaning tooth) is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the cat family Felidae, representing the earliest ...
(a
preoccupied name), prompting Plieninger to erect the replacement name ''Zanclodon'' in 1847. A paralectotype was also assigned to ''Z. laevis'': SMNS 6045a, a loose germ tooth.
''Z. plieningeri'' was named by
Fraas in 1896, but it became a junior synonym of ''Z. laevis'' shortly after publication as they are both based on the same specimen, SMNS 6045.
[
Many species were previously lumped under the ''Zanclodon'' genus, but currently only the type species, ''Z. laevis'', is accepted to belong to the genus.]
Classification
''Zanclodon'' was formerly placed in the Teratosauridae, within the , and at times, plateosaurid material was mistakenly referred to ''Zanclodon''.[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
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* ...
)
* ''Z. crenatus'' (Plieninger, 1846) riginally "Smilodon" = ''nomen dubium'' at Archosauromorpha indeterminateSauropodomorpha
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 lo ...
''incertae sedis
or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), 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 phytosaur
* ''Z. cambrensis'' (Newton, 1899) = '" Newtonsaurus" (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''][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]
* ''Z. silesiacus'' ( Jaekel, 1910) = ''nomen dubium'' at Archosauromorpha indeterminate[Carrano, M.T.; Benson, R.B.J.; & Sampson, S.D. (2012). "The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10(2): 211–300]
References
Triassic reptiles of Europe
Fossil taxa described in 1846
Prehistoric reptile genera
{{Paleo-archosaur-stub