| Palaeoscincus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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|---|---|
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| Palaeoscincus costatus holotype tooth | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Genus: | †Palaeoscincus Leidy, 1856 |
| Type species | |
| Palaeoscincus costatus Leidy, 1856
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Palaeoscincus (meaning "ancient lizard" from Greek: παλαιός palaios and Greek: σκίγγος skinkos)[1] is a dubious genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur based on teeth from the mid-late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana.[2] Like several other dinosaur genera named by Joseph Leidy (Deinodon, Thespesius, and Trachodon), it is an historically important genus with a convoluted taxonomy that has been all but abandoned by modern dinosaur paleontologists. Because of its wide use in the early 20th century, it was somewhat well known to the general public, often through illustrations of an animal with the armor of Edmontonia and the tail club of an ankylosaurid.
- ^ Colbert, Edwin H. (Edwin Harris); Knight, Charles Robert (1951). The dinosaur book: the ruling reptiles and their relatives. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 152.
- ^ Leidy, J. (1856). "Notice of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes, discovered by Dr. F. V. Hayden in the Bad Lands of the Judith River, Nebraska Territories". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 8: 72–73.