Pronunciation: die-NOD-o-kus
Meaning: Terrible beam
Author/s: Owen (1884)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Kent, England
Discovery Chart Position: #62
Dinodocus mackesoni
The remains that would become Dinodocus were mentioned in passing in 1841 by Sir Richard Owen, who thought they belonged to a "gigantic crocodilian reptile" known as Polyptychodon. Still obsessed with his large croc' notion, Owen released a description of the bones a decade later, then officially named them Dinodocus when its dinosaurian affinities became apparent some 33 years after that. Richard Lydekker assigned Dinodocus to Sauropoda as a member of Cetiosauridae (along with Titanosaurus) in 1888 when Polyptychodon turned out to be a pliosaurian with very different limb bones. Then it was synonymised with Pelorosaurus in 1908 by A.S. Woodward, who, like Harry Seeley before him, suspected the Wealden vertebrae known as Ornothopsis belonged to the same critter.
As noted by Owen himself, owing to the difficulty of extracting its fossils from their matrix, they were "less characteristic" when they reached the British Museum than when he took the description and sketches of them on the spot where they were found, which is never a good thing. A 2004 review by Paul Upchurch concluded that its remains were too poor to be synonymising with anything. Dinodocus is dubious at best.
As noted by Owen himself, owing to the difficulty of extracting its fossils from their matrix, they were "less characteristic" when they reached the British Museum than when he took the description and sketches of them on the spot where they were found, which is never a good thing. A 2004 review by Paul Upchurch concluded that its remains were too poor to be synonymising with anything. Dinodocus is dubious at best.
(Mackeson's Terrible beam)
Etymology
Dinodocus is derived from the Greek "deinos" (terrible) and "dokos" (beam) referring to a long, slender humerus that Owen misidentified as a portion of the ilium and lower femur of a large crocodile.
The species epithet, mackesoni, honours discoverer Mr. H. B. Mackeson.
Discovery
The remains of Dinodocus were discovered in the Lower Green-sand Formation, near Hythe, Kent, England, by Mr H. B. Mackeson in 1840.
The holotype (NMHUK 14695) was listed by Owen as "portions of the corocoid, humerus and ulna, iliac, ischial and pubic bones, a large proportion of the shaft of a femur, parts of a tibia and fibula, and several metatarsal bones".
However, the "femur" (thigh) and one of the "ilia" (hip bones) were both ends of the previously mentoned portion of humerus (upper arm bone), the other "ilia" and the "ischial" and "pubic" bones (hip bones) were not bones but merely impressions in the rock, the "tibia and fibula" (shin and calf) were also impressions, but of an ulna and radius (lower arm bones), and the co-called metatarsals (foot bones) defy identification.
The initial portions of corocoid (that Owen described as "enormous") and ulna haven't been seen or mentioned since 1851.
