Dinosaur Genera List corrections #141

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

Now that Mesozoic Meanderings #3 is out, I can add a dinosaur genus of my own 
to the Dinosaur Genera List, as genus #885:

Ponerosteus Olshevsky, 2000

It appears in MM #3, for which the citation is:

Olshevsky, G., 2000. "An Annotated Checklist of Dinosaur Species by 
Continent," Mesozoic Meanderings #3: 1?157 [illustrated by T. L. Ford].

Proposed as a replacement name for Procerosaurus Fritsch, 1905, which is 
preoccupied by Procerosaurus von Huene, 1902 (a Triassic genus, currently a 
junior synonym of Tanystropheus but once considered to be a dinosaur itself), 
Ponerosteus, I believe, finally takes care of the last of the preoccupied 
genera among the dinosaurs. Fritsch proposed Procerosaurus for the species he 
originally named Iguanodon exogirarum in 1878, based on what he thought was a 
natural tibial endocast(!) from the Cenomanian Exogyrenkalk of Bohemia. When 
Dollo opined that this specimen did not belong in the genus Iguanodon, 
Fritsch gave it a new (or so he thought) generic name.

The derivation of Ponerosteus, a name suggested some time ago by Ben Creisler 
in correspondence, is from the Greek poneros (meaning "bad, worthless, 
useless") and osteon (meaning "bone"): an apt description of the type 
specimen. The species epithet was originally spelled exogirarum, but since 
this is the genitive plural of Exogyra (a genus of fossil shell found in the 
same deposit as the Ponerosteus specimen), the original spelling is incorrect 
and should be emended to exogyrarum. Indeed, this spelling has already 
appeared several times in the literature, so let's make it official. The 
species and genus are utter nomina dubia, of course, and doubtfully 
dinosaurian. The type specimen may be the worst fossil to serve as a type 
specimen still classified within Dinosauria, ranking alongside the petrified 
wood that is the type specimen of Aachenosaurus multidens.

The first printing of Mesozoic Meanderings #3 is selling slowly but surely, 
and it won't be long before it sells out. (A second printing is practically 
ready to go.) For ordering instructions, visit my website:

http://members.aol.com/Dinogeorge/index.html

Disregard the terribly outdated status reports on the website; one of these 
days I'll find the time to update them.