Pronunciation: kum-NOH-ree-uh
Meaning: for Cumnor
Author/s: Seeley (1888)
Synonyms: Camptosaurus prestwichii
First Discovery: Cumnor, England
Discovery Chart Position: #67
Cumnoria prestwichii
Initially dumped on a rubbish heap by workers at Chawley Brick Pits, the remains that would become Cumnoria were eventually bagged up and carted off to Professor George Rolleston of Oxford University. Unsure of their owners identity, Rolliston showed the fossils to palaeontologist Joseph Prestwich, who reported them as a new species of Iguanodon. But it didn't receive a species epithet until John Whitaker Hulke announced Iguanodon prestwichii (honouring Prestwich) to the world in 1880.
In 1888, Harry Govier Seeley decided that the fossils represented a hitherto unknown species which he named Cumnoria prestwichi (complete with spelling mistake), but it only lasted a year before Richard Lydekker reassigned the remains to a new species of Camptosaurus, Camptosaurus prestwichii. Over a century passed before doubts were cast on Lydekker's opinion—first by David Norman in 1998, then by Darren Naish and David Martill in 2008. A 2010 analysis by Andrew McDonald confirmed that Seeley was right, Cumnoria is distinct and valid, and rather than being a fairly small and gracile member of Camptosauridae—a family name for Camptosaurus and its closest relatives—it appears to be the oldest known member of Styracosterna, a group of "advanced" Iguanodonts containing the hadrosaurids and all dinosaurs more closely related to them than to camptosaurids.
Camposauridae is now only a shadow of the family it once was. Most species of Camptosaurus have been spirited away, renamed, and moved to different branches of the iguanodontian family tree. But just when it looks like collapsing completely due to a lack of members—which would leave its name-bearer Camptosaurus dispar an unemployed lone rider scooting around the base of Ankylopollexia—someone throws it a bone or ten.
2015 heralded yet another review of the group, with its membership bolstered by Ken Carpenter, who re-assigned a braincase from McDonald's Uteodon to Dryptosaurus on the grounds that its "unique" features were the result of distortion, and moved the rest of its remains back to Camptosaurus aphanoecetes, which he had coined himself in 2008. To complete a double whammy, Carpenter also undid McDonald's Cumnoria, returning it to Lydekker's Camptosaurus prestwichii—but that move has found little support.
In 1888, Harry Govier Seeley decided that the fossils represented a hitherto unknown species which he named Cumnoria prestwichi (complete with spelling mistake), but it only lasted a year before Richard Lydekker reassigned the remains to a new species of Camptosaurus, Camptosaurus prestwichii. Over a century passed before doubts were cast on Lydekker's opinion—first by David Norman in 1998, then by Darren Naish and David Martill in 2008. A 2010 analysis by Andrew McDonald confirmed that Seeley was right, Cumnoria is distinct and valid, and rather than being a fairly small and gracile member of Camptosauridae—a family name for Camptosaurus and its closest relatives—it appears to be the oldest known member of Styracosterna, a group of "advanced" Iguanodonts containing the hadrosaurids and all dinosaurs more closely related to them than to camptosaurids.
Camposauridae is now only a shadow of the family it once was. Most species of Camptosaurus have been spirited away, renamed, and moved to different branches of the iguanodontian family tree. But just when it looks like collapsing completely due to a lack of members—which would leave its name-bearer Camptosaurus dispar an unemployed lone rider scooting around the base of Ankylopollexia—someone throws it a bone or ten.
2015 heralded yet another review of the group, with its membership bolstered by Ken Carpenter, who re-assigned a braincase from McDonald's Uteodon to Dryptosaurus on the grounds that its "unique" features were the result of distortion, and moved the rest of its remains back to Camptosaurus aphanoecetes, which he had coined himself in 2008. To complete a double whammy, Carpenter also undid McDonald's Cumnoria, returning it to Lydekker's Camptosaurus prestwichii—but that move has found little support.
Etymology
Cumnoria is named after Cumnor Hurst—a village 3.5 miles from the centre of Oxford—where the remains were discovered. The species epithet, prestwichii, honours English geologist Joseph Prestwich.
Discovery
The fossils of Cumnoria were discovered in the lower Kimmeridge Clay Formation at the Chawley Brick Pits, Cumnor Hurst (also known as Hurst Hill), by workers at the pit in 1879.
The holotype (OXFUM J.3303) is a partial skull and skeleton, probably juvenile.
