Name: Fodonyx
(digging claw).
Phonetic: Fo-don-iks.
Named By: David W. E. Hone & Michael
J. Benton - 2008.
Synonyms: Rhynchosaurus spenceri.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Archosauromorpha, Rhynchosauria, Hyperodapedontidae.
Species: F. spenceri (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Skull roughly about 13.5-13 centimetres long.
Roughly estimated to be about 90 centimetres
long.
Known locations: England, Devon - Otter
Sandstone Formation.
Time period: Anisian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Remains of over twenty
individuals.
Fodonyx
is a genus of rynchosaur
that lived in England during the early part of
the Mid Triassic. The genus was born out of the decision to move a
species of the Rhynchosaurus
genus on the basis of differences from
the type species that by todays taxonomic standards would warrant a new
genus as opposed to an additional species. Like other rhynchosaurs,
Fodonyx would have been a quadrupedal archosaur
that used its chisel
like incisor teeth to eat plants.
One
of the specimens moved to Fodonyx, a skull, has
now been found to
represent a genus in its own right, and was used to establish the
genus Bentonyx.
Further reading
- A new genus of Rhynchosaur from the Middle
Triassic of South-West
England. - Palaeontology 51 (1): 95–115. - David W.
E. Hone & Michael J. Benton - 2008.
- On Fodonyx spenceri and a new rhynchosaur from
the Middle Triassic
of Devon. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
30(6):1884-1888. - M. C. Langer, F. C. Montefeltro,
D. W. E. Hone, R. Whatley & C. L. Schultz -
2010.
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