ORTHOGONIOSAURUS
a dubious ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of India.
Pronunciation: OR-tho-GOH-nee-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Straight-angled lizard
Author/s: Das-Gupta (
1930)
Synonyms: Massospondylus rawesi?
First Discovery: Jabalpur, India
Discovery Chart Position: #157
Orthogoniosaurus matleyi
(Matley's Straight-Angled Lizard)Etymology
Orthogoniosaurus is derived from the Greek "orthos" (straight), "gonia" (angle, corner) and "sauros" (lizard), referring to the straight rear edge of its tooth, which has a curved serration-lacking front edge.
The
species epithet,
matleyi, honours British palaeontologist Charles Alfred Matley.
Synonyms
Massospondylus rawesi?
Richard Lydekker named
Massospondylus rawesi in 1890 for a curved and finely serrated tooth (NHMUK R4190) found by MR Rawes in the Maastrichtian-aged Takli Formation of Maharashtra, and assigned it to Anchisauridae at a time when anchisaurids were thought to be small carnivorous dinosaurs. It was referred to
Orthogoniosaurus as
Orthogoniosaurus rawesi by Olshevsky 1991, because its blade-like tooth obviously doesn't belong to the herbivorous sauropodomorph
Massospondylus, but it is
not diagnostic past the level of Theropoda indet., despite the fine
serrations and stout proportions reminiscent of
abelisaurid theropod teeth.
Discovery
The remains of
Orthogoniosaurus were discovered in the "Carnosaur Bed Member" of the Lameta Formation at Bara Simla Hill, near Jubbulpore (aka Jabalpur), Madhya Pradesh, India, by H. C. Das-Gupta in 1924, during a student field trip from Presidency College, Kolkata.
The
holotype (unknown code) is a single tooth, 2.7cm in length.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Maastrichtian
Age range: 66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Lydekker R (1890) "Note on certain vertebrate remains from the Nagpur District".
Records of the Geological Survey of India, 23(1): 20-24.
• Das-Gupta HC (1930) "On a new theropod dinosaur (
Orthogoniosaurus matleyi, n. gen. et n. sp.) from the Lameta beds of Jubbulpore".
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, 16(20): 367-369.
• Huene F von and Matley CA (1933) "The Cretaceous Saurischia and Ornithischia of the Central Provinces of India".
Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,
Palaeontologia Indica, 21: 1-72.
• Romer AS (1956) "Osteology of the Reptiles".
University of Chicago Press, 1-772.
• Walker AD (1964) "Triassic reptiles from the Elgin area:
Ornithosuchus and the origin of carnosaurs".
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 248(744): 53-134.
• Chatterjee S (1978) "
Indosuchus and
Indosaurus, Cretaceous carnosaurs from India".
Journal of Paleontology, 52(3): 570-580.
• Molnar RE (1990) "Problematic Theropoda: Carnosaurs". Page 306-317 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: First Edition".
University of California Press.
• Olshevsky G (1991) "A revision of the parainfraclass Archosauria Cope, 1869, excluding the advanced Crocodylia".
Mesozoic Meanderings, 2: 1–196.
• Galton P in Glut DF (1997) "
Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia".
• Tykoski RS and Rowe T (2004) "Ceratosauria". In Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
University of California Press.
• Carrano MT, Wilson JA and Barrett PM (2010) "The history of dinosaur collecting in central India, 1828-1947". In Moody, Buffetaut, Naish and Martill (eds.) "
Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Saurians: A Historical Perspective".
Geological Society, Special Publication, 343: 161-173.
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Atkinson, L.
"
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