Craspedodon
Name:
Craspedodon
(edge tooth).
Phonetic: Crass-pe-do-don
Named By: Louis Dollo - 1883.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ceratopsia?
Species: C. lonzeensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unknown due to lack of skeletal remains.
Known locations: Belgium - Glauconie de Lonz�e
Formation.
Time period: Santonian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Teeth.
Craspedodon
is what is known as a tooth taxon in that the entire genus has been
described upon the basis of only a few teeth. When first described
by Louis Dollo in 1883, he noted that the teeth were similar to
those of Iguanodon,
and so for well over a hundred years Craspedodon
had been established as a possible (though dubious) iguanodont
dinosaur.
A
new study of these teeth in 2007 by Godefroit and Lambert however
has raised a startling new theory. When they studied these teeth,
they compared to other plant eating dinosaurs and found them to be
most similar to neoceratopsian
dinosaurs. If this analysis is
correct, then Craspedodon would actually be the
first official record
of a ceratopsian dinosaur living in Europe, an area that had long
been presumed to have an absence of ceratopsian dinosaurs which
traditionally have been associated with Far East Asia and North America.
Further reading
- Note sur les restes de dinosauriens rencontr�s dans le Cr�tac�
sup�rieur de la Belgique [Note on the dinosaur remains found in the
Upper Cretaceous of Belgium]. - Bulletin du Mus�e Royal
d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 2:205-221. - Louis Dollo -
1883.
- A re-appraisal of Craspedodon lonzeensis
Dollo, 1883 from the
Upper Cretaceous of Belgium: the first record of a neoceratopsian
dinosaur in Europe?". - Bulletin de l'Institut royal des Sciences
naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre 77: 83–93. -
Pascal Godefroit & Olivier Lambert - 2007.
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