| Neosodon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Teeth assigned toNeosodon. | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Genus: | †Neosodon Moussaye, 1885 |
Neosodon (meaning "new tooth") was agenus ofsauropoddinosaur from the lateTithonian-aged (Upper Jurassic)Sables et Gres a Trigonia gibbosa ofPas-de-Calais department,France.[1][2] It has never been formally given a species name, but is often seen asN. praecursor, which actually comes from a different animal. Often in the past, it had been assigned to thewastebasket taxonPelorosaurus, but restudy has suggested that it could be related toTuriasaurus, a roughly contemporaneous giantSpanish sauropod. It is only known from six teeth.[3]
Moussaye named this genus for a large, broken, worn tooth found inWilmille, nearBoulogne-sur-Mer, and neglected to give it a species name. He thought that it belonged to atheropod likeMegalosaurus.[3] Since then, five more teeth have been found and assigned toNeosodon.
Sauvage synonymized it with his tooth speciesIguanodon praecursor,[4][5] which by this time had become mixed up withEdward Drinker Cope's roughly contemporaneousAmericanMorrison Formation genusCaulodon (now a synonym ofCamarasaurus). However, the two are not based on the sametype, as "I".praecursor comes from slightly older rocks: the same unnamedKimmeridgian formation asMorinosaurus.[6] Earlier reviews (Romer, 1956; Steel, 1970) accepted it as a synonym ofPelorosaurus, and considered it a possiblebrachiosaurid.[7][8]
In the 1990s, French researchers published on newcamarasaurid bones from the same formation. At first, Buffetaut and Martin (1993) suggested that they belonged toNeosodon praecursor,[9] but Le Loeuffet al. (1996) later rejected this, asNeosodon is based only on several teeth, which did not overlap the new material.[10] The latest review accepted bothNeosodon and "Iguanodon"praecursor as dubious sauropods.[11] However, Royo-Torreset al. (2006), in their description ofTuriasaurus, noted that this tooth was similar to those of their genus and suggested that it could be aturiasaur.[12]
The teeth referred toNeosodon are large (60 mm [2.36 in] tall and a cross-section of 35 by 20 mm (1.38 by 0.79 in) in its incomplete state, estimated at 80 mm [3.15 in] tall if complete)[3] andspear-like orspatulate in shape. The owner would have been a large,quadrupedalherbivore.[11]
