POEKILOPLEURON
a meat-eating metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of France.
Pronunciation: PEEK-i-lo-PLOOR-on
Meaning: Varied ribs
Author/s: Eudes-Deslongchamps (
1838)
Synonyms: Megalosaurus poikilopleuron
First Discovery: Calvados, France
Discovery Chart Position: #6
Poekilopleuron bucklandii
Etymology
Poekilopleuron is derived from the Greek "poikilos" (varied) and "pleuron" (rib or side), referring to the three types of rib present in its remains.
The
species epithet,
bucklandii, honors English theologian, geologist and palaeontologist William Buckland, namer of
Megalosaurus.
Discovery
The first remains of
Poekilopleuron were removed in a block by workmen from the Calcaire de Caen Formation at La Maladrerie Quarry, Departement du Calvados, France, then reported by local physician Alexandre Frédéric Bourienne to Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps, who collected them in July of 1835.
The
holotype is an uncatalogued specimen which was housed in the Musée de la Faculté des Sciences da Caen when it was blown up during the Battle of Caen (World War II) in 1944. It included 21 tail bones (caudal vertebrae), several chevrons, belly ribs (gastralia), ribs, an upper arm bone (humerus), two lower arm bones (radius and ulna), a handbone (first metacarpal), finger bones (manual phalanges), a thigh, shin and calf (femur, tibia, and fibula), an ankle (astragalus), a foot bone (third metatarsal) and toe bones (pedal phalanges).
Casts of the holotype housed in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, include the gastralia, humerus, radius, ulna, first metacarpal, third metatarsal and pedal phalanges, catalogued as MNHN 1897-2. Casts of the humerus, radius, ulna, and pedal phalanges are also in the Yale Peabody Museum, catalogued as YPM 4938.
Preparators
Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Middle Jurassic
Stage: Bathonian
Age range: 168-165 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 9 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 2.2 tons
Diet: Carnivore
Poekilopleuron
bucklandii
Other Species
As well as misspellings—
Poecilopleuron,
Poicilopleuron and
Poikilopleuron—five other species have been assigned to
Poekilopleuron since its conception, all of which are either dubious or have been spirited away to anchor other dinosaurs:
Poekilopleuron gallicus ("from Gaul") was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1869 for remains he had originally assigned to
Laelaps as
Laelaps gallicus in 1867.
The
Laelaps type specimen,
Laelaps aquilunguis, became
Dryptosaurus aquilunguis (Marsh, 1877) though, rather unsuprisingly, it flirted briefly with
Megalosaurus as
Megalosaurus aquilunguis (Osborn 1898).
Poicilopleuron valens ("stong, powerful, healthy") is based on remains (USNM 218) from Middle Park, Colorado, that Joseph Leidy described in 1870 along with an
Antrodemus foot note: "should the (...) Colorado saurian be distinct from
Poicilopleuron, it might be named
Antrodemus". Few took a blind bit of notice, and these remains now belong to
Allosaurus fragilis.
Poikilopleuron pusillus ("small") was named by Richard Owen in 1876 for remains discovered on the Isle of Wight. It was renamed
Poekilopleuron minor ("small, less, or secondary") by Edward Drinker Cope in 1879, then Harry Govier Seeley used its remains to name an all-new dinosaur,
Aristosuchus pusillus, in 1887.
Poekilopleuron schmidti (in honor of Friedrich Schmidt) was named by W.A. Kiprijanow (Kipriyanov) in 1883 based on some ribs and a sauropod toe from the Kursk region that he thought belonged to a marine crocodylian. In 1987, Efimov and Chkhikvadze realised it was a dinosaur, but it's a dubious one due to its indeterminate remains.
Poekilopleuron valesdunensis ("from Val-es-Dunes) was named by Ronan Allain in 2002, and renamed
Dubreuillosaurus by the same author three years later.
References
• Eudes-Deslongchamps A (1836) "Plusieurs parties d'un mémoire sur un très-grand animal fossile découvert, l'an dernier, dans les carrières de la Maladrerie à un quart de lieu de Caen".
Analyse des Travaux de la Société Pendant l'Année Académique 1835–1836, Séance Publique de la Société Linnéenne de Normandie Tenue à Vire le 24 Mai 1836: 14–25.
• Eudes-Deslongchamps A (1838) "
Mémoire sur le Poekilopleuron bucklandii, grande saurien fossile, intermédiaire entre les crocodiles et les lézards, découvert dans les carrières de la Maladrerie, près Caen, au mois de juillet 1835".
Mémoires de la Société Linnéenne Normandie, 6: 37–146.
• Hulke JW (1879) "Note on
Poekilopleuron bucklandi of Eudes Deslongchamps (père), identifying it with
Megalosaurus bucklandi".
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 35(1–4): 233–238. DOI: 10.1144/GSL.JGS.1879.035.01-04.10.
• Seeley HG (1887) "On
Aristosuchus pusillus Owen, being further notes on the fossils described by Sir R. Owen as
Poikilopleuron pusillus Owen".
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 43(1–4): 221–228.
• Sargeant W (1996) "
Vertebrate Fossils and the Evolution of Scientific Concepts".
• Allain R and Chure D (2001) "
Poekilopleuron bucklandii, the theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Normandy".
Palaeontology, 45(6): 1107–1121. DOI: 10.1111/1475-4983.00277.
• Molnar RE (2001) "Theropod paleopathology: a literature survey" in Tanke and Carpenter (eds.) "
Mesozoic Vertebrate Life".
• Allain R (2002) "Discovery of megalosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) in the Middle Bathonian of Normandy and its implications for the phylogeny of basal Tetanurae".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 22(3): 548–563.
• Allain R (2005) "The postcranial anatomy of the megalosaur
Dubreuillosaurus valesdunensis (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Middle Jurassic of Normandy, France".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 25(4): 850–858. DOI: 10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0850:TPAOTM]2.0.CO;2.
• Brignon A (2018) "New historical data on the first dinosaurs found in France".
BSGF Earth Sciences Bulletin, 189(4): 1-4. DOI: 10.1051/bsgf/2018003.
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