Iuticosaurus
Name:
Iuticosaurus
(Jute lizard).
Phonetic: yut-e-co-sore-us.
Named By: J. le Loeuff - 1993.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropoda, Titanosauria.
Species: I. valdensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unknown due to overall lack of fossils.
Known locations: England, Isle of Wight Wessex
Formation.
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Caudal (tail) vertebrae.
Iuticosaurus
is a genus of titanosaurian
dinosaur, though one that is widely
regarded as dubious. Why it is dubious stems all the way back to
1887 when Richard Lydekker named two caudal vertebrae (BMNH R146a
and BMNH 151) as belonging to the genus Onithopsis.
His
reason for this was that fossils of the tail of Onithopsis
were not
known, though others such as Harry Govier Seeley and John Hulke
criticised this decision, because if Onithopsis
tail vertebrae were
not already established in relation to other fossils, then there was
no way of knowing if these new caudal vertebrae truly belonged to
Onithopsis. In addition to this a similarity to
the caudal vertebrae
of Titanosaurus
was also noted.
In
1888, Lydekker moved the caudal vertebrae from Onithopsis
into
Titanosaurus as Titanosaurus
sp. a, while also moving a third
vertebra (BMNH 32390) into Titanosaurus sp.
b. Then in
1929, Friedrich von Huene named these as distinct species of
Titanosaurus, with BMNH R146a and BMNH 151
becoming T.
valdensis and BMNH 32390 becoming T.
lydekkeri. Then nothing
much happened until 1993 when Jean le Loeuff re-described these two
species as a new genus called Iuticosaurus. This
made Titanosaurus
Valdensis and Titanosaurus lydekkeri into
Iuticosaurus
Valdensis and
Iuticosaurus lydekkeri, however, le Loeuff soon
considered I.
lydekkeri to be a nomen dubium.
Currently,
Iuticosaurus is only represented by two caudal
vertebrae that don’t
really present much more than a generic titanosaurian form, which has
led others to speculate that the Iuticosaurus genus
is itself dubious.
Further reading
- On certain dinosaurian vertebrae from the Cretaceous of India and
the Isle of Wight. - Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of
London 43: 157–160. - R. Lydekker - 1887.
- Catalogue of fossil reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum.
Pt. I. Containing the orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia,
Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria. -
British Museum of Natural History, London. - R. Lydekker -
1888.
- Los saurisquios y ornitisquios del Cret�ceo Argentino. - Anales
del Museo de La Plata (series 3) 3: 1–196 - F. von
Huene - 1929.
- European titanosaurids. - Revue de Pal�obiologie, Volume
Sp�ciale 7:105-117 - J. Le Loeuff - 1993.
- D�couverte d'Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) dans le
Maastrichtien des Corbi�res (Aude, France). - Comptes Rendus
de l'Academie des Sciences, S�rie II 316: 1023-1029. - J.
le Loeuff, E. Buffetaut, M. Martin, V. Martin &
H. Tong - 1993.
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