''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
Archosauriformes (Greek for 'ruling lizards', and Latin for 'form') is a clade of diapsid reptiles encompassing archosaurs and some of their close relatives. It was defined by Jacques Gauthier (1994) as the clade stemming from the last common anc ...
from the
Erfurt Formation
The Erfurt Formation, also known as the Lower Keuper (German: ''Untere Keuper'', ''Lettenkeuper'', ''Lettenkohle'' or ''Lettenkohlenkeuper''), is a stratigraphic formation of the Keuper group and the Germanic Trias supergroup. It was deposited ...
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
Gaildorf is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Kocher, 13 km south of Schwäbisch Hall. Gaildorf is the approximate center of the Limpurger Land district, formerly a county ...
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
In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon.
The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the s ...
), 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 Fraas is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Eberhard Fraas (1862–1915), German geologist and paleontologist, son of Oscar
* Karl Nikolas Fraas (1810–1875), German botanist
*Oscar Fraas
Oscar Friedrich von Fraas (17 January ...
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
Rauisuchidae is a group of large (up to ) predatory Triassic archosaurs. Some disagreement exists over which genera should be included in the Rauisuchidae and which should be in the related Prestosuchidae and Poposauridae, and indeed whether thes ...
, 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
Phytosaurs (Φυτόσαυροι in Greek, meaning 'plant lizard') are an extinct group of large, mostly semiaquatic Late Triassic archosauriform or basal archosaurian reptiles. Phytosaurs belong to the order Phytosauria and are sometimes ref ...
* ''Z. cambrensis'' (Newton, 1899) = '"Newtonsaurus
This list of informally named dinosaurs is a listing of dinosaurs (excluding Aves; birds and their extinct relatives) that have never been given formally published scientific names. This list only includes names that were not properly published ...
" (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
''Batrachotomus'' is a genus of prehistoric archosaur. Fossils of this animal have been found in southern Germany and dated from the Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic period, around 242 to 237 million years ago. ''Batrachotomus'' was descri ...
''[Jaekel, O. (1910). Ueber einen neuen Belodonten aus dem Buntsandstein von Bernburg ]n a new belodontid from the Buntsandstein of Bernburg
N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphab ...
''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