Echinodon
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Extinct (fossil)
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E. becklesii Owen, 1861 |
Echinodon (eh-KY-no-don) meaning "prickly tooth" in reference to the spines on its teeth (Greek echino = prickly + odon = tooth), occasionally known as Saurechinodon, was a small European dinosaur of the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (Berriasian).
[edit] Discovery and species
The type specimen was discovered by Samuel Beckles near Swanage, England. A bipedal herbivore, it was around 0.6 m (2 ft) long. Unlike most ornithischians, Echinodon had one or two caniniform teeth in each maxilla.
The only species is E. becklesii, named in 1861 by Richard Owen, who mistook it for a lizard.
[edit] Classification
Echinodon has at times been considered it a basal thyreophoran, mainly due to the erroneous association of turtle limb osteoderms with its remains. Paul Sereno's reclassification to Heterodontosauridae in 1991 remains somewhat controversial. David B. Norman and Paul M. Barrett redescribed Echinodon in 2002 and supported the heterodontosaurid classification, though using somewhat different evidence than Sereno. If Echinodon is a true heterodontosaurid, it is considerably younger than all other well-known members of this family.
[edit] References
Norman, D.B. & P.M. Barrett, 2002. Ornithischian dinosaurs from the Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian) of England. Special Papers in Palaeontology 68: 161-189.
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