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Dinosaur Genera List corrections #141
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Disregard the terribly outdated status reports on the website; one of these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.