Valdosaurus
Name:
Valdosaurus
(Weald lizard).
Phonetic: Val-doe-sore-us.
Named By: Peter M. Galton - 1977.
Synonyms: Dryosaurus canaliculatus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Dryosauroidea, Dryosauridae.
Species: V. canaliculatus
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Holotype estimated at about 1.2 meter
long, though this is also noted as being a juvenile. An isolated 50
centimetre long femur suggests an adult size of approximately 4.4
meters long when scaled up from the holotype.
Known locations: England.
Time period: Early Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains.
The
Valdosaurus holotype fossils of two thigh bones
(femurs) were first
recovered in 1848 but thought to represent Iguanodon,
and
eventually being thought to be fossils of Hypsilophodon.
Skip
forward over a hundred years later and palaeontologist Peter M.
Galton used the two thigh bones to establish a new species of
Dryosaurus,
D. canaliculatus. Just two years later however
in
1977, Peter M. Galton renamed his new species of Dryosaurus
as a
distinct new genus of ornithopod named Valdosaurus,
with D.
cacanaliculatus becoming a synonym to the genus.
After
this additional post cranial remains began being added to Valdosaurus,
with fossils from locations as far away as Romania and Niger being
identified as species of Valdosaurus. However
many of these have now
been questioned, and some of these have been used to create new
dinosaur genera such as Elrahzosaurus
from Niger.
At the time of
writing, the only valid species of Valdosaurus is
the type species
V. canaliculatus, with
the holotype being the original two fourteen centimetre long femurs.
Both of these femurs seem to have come from a juvenile however,
making the adult size of Valdosaurus harder to
establish with
certainty.
Valdosaurus
should not be confused with the similarly named Valdoraptor.
Further reading
- English hypsilophodontid dinosaurs (Reptilia: Ornithischia),
- Palaeontology 18(4): 741-752. - Peter M. Galton -
1975.
- The Upper Jurassic dinosaur Dryosaurus and a Laurasia-Gondwana
connection in the Upper Jurassic. - Nature 268(5617):
230-232. - Peter M. galton - 1977.
- Valdosaurus, a hypsilophodontid dinosaur from the Lower
Cretaceous of Europe and Africa, - G�obios 13: 147-159 -
Peter M. Galton & P. Taquet - 1982.
- Notes on Neocomian (Late Cretaceous) ornithopod dinosaurs from
England - Hypsilophodon, Valdosaurus,
"Camptosaurus",
"Iguanodon" - and referred specimens from
Romania and elsewhere.
- Revue de Pal�obiologie 28(1): 211-273 - Peter M.
Galton - 2009.
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