Marmarospondylus

Marmarospondylus
Temporal range: Bathonian
~168–166 Ma
↓
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Clade: †Neosauropoda
Clade: †Macronaria (?)
Genus: †Marmarospondylus
Owen, 1875
Species:
†M. robustus
Binomial name
†Marmarospondylus robustus
Owen, 1875

Marmarospondylus ("marble [reference to the Forest Marble Formation] vertebra") is a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur from Middle Jurassic deposits in the English Midlands.

The type species, Marmarospondylus robustus, was described by Richard Owen as a species of the Late Jurassic genus Bothriospondylus in 1875.[1] The holotype, NHMUK R.22428, a dorsal vertebra, was found in the Bathonian-age Forest Marble Formation at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. Owen himself in an addendum to the same publication coined Marmarospondylus for B. robustus, presumably due to its being older than B. suffossus. Recent publications have treated Marmarospondylus as a dubious member of Macronaria.[2][3][4]

  1. ^ Owen, R., 1875, "A monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Mesozoic Formations. Monograph on the Genus Bothriospondylus", Palaeontographical Society, 29: 15-26
  2. ^ P. Upchurch, P. M. Barrett, and P. Dodson. 2004. Sauropoda. In D. B. Weishampel, H. Osmolska, and P. Dodson (eds.), The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 259-322
  3. ^ D. Naish and D. M. Martill. 2007. Dinosaurs of Great Britain and the role of the Geological Society of London in their discovery: basal Dinosauria and Saurischia. Journal of the Geological Society, London 164:493-510/
  4. ^ Mannion, P.D., 2010 "A revision of the sauropod dinosaur genus 'Bothriospondylus' with a redescription of the type material of the middle Jurassic form 'B. madagascariensis'", Palaeontology, 53(2): 277–296