The vertebrate Fauna of the Judith River formation, Montana
Author
Sahni, Ashok
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
1972
147
6
319
416
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.3382461
fd03f669-c046-46cd-861a-6bf56b7fc989
http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1099
3382461
Deinodon horridus
Leidy, 1856
Figure 8M-R
Deinodon
horridus
LEIDY, 1856
, p. 72
.
Aublysodon mirandus
LEIDY, 1868
, p. 198
.
Aublysodon lateralis
COPE, 1876b
, p. 248
.
Laelaps incrassatus
COPE, 1876a
, p. 248
;
1876b
, p. 341
.
Laelaps hazenianus
COPE, 1876b
, p. 343
.
Ornithomimus grandis
MARSH, 1890
, p. 85
.
Dryptosaurus kenabekides
HAY, 1899
, p. 348
.
Gorgosaurus
libratus
LAMBE, 1914, p. 13
.
Deinodon horridus
was proposed by
Leidy (1856)
for
about a dozen teeth collected by Hayden from the Judith River Formation. This species was the first of the carnivorous dinosaurs to be recovered from the Upper Cretaceous
sediments of the American continent. The collection of teeth on which the genus was based consists of two distinct morphological types, although
Leidy (1856
, p. 73;
1860
, p. 144) considered them as belonging to a single species.
Leidy (1860
, p. 145) correctly guessed that the differences involved in the two groups of teeth were positional in nature and suggested that the teeth with U-shaped cross sections were incisors. Later,
Leidy (1868
, p. 198) erected a separate genus,
Aublysodon
, for the inclusion of those teeth he had earlier regarded as incisors. These teeth have serrated crests on the posterior side.
Cope (1876a
,
1876b
) described a number of species from the Judith River Formation under the genus
Laelaps
, the type of which is
L
.
aquilunguis
, obtained from New Jersey. The genus
Aublysodon
was placed in synonymy with
Deinodon
by Matthew and Brown (1922). Of the three species of
Laelaps
collected from the Judith River Formation, two,
L
.
explanatus
and
L
.
falculus
, were referred to
Dromaeosaurus
and the other,
L
.
incrassatus
, was transferred to
Deinodon
by Matthew and Brown (1922).
On the basis of the dentition it is not possible to separate the closely related genera
Gorgosaurus
and
Deinodon
. As suggested by a number of authors including Matthew and Brown (1922, p. 383), and
Russell (1964
, p. 13), the genus
Gorgosaurus
is probably synonymous with the Judith River Formation
Deinodon
. Lambe (1914) described
G
.
libratus
from the Oldman Formation and then restudied it in greater detail (Lambe, 1917) on the basis of more complete material than that known for
Deinodon
. The name
Deinodon
, however, has priority and no differences can be shown to exist between the type specimen of
Deinodon
and material of
Gorgosaurus
. The name
Deinodon
should be retained for the large carnivorous dinosaur found in the Judith River and Oldman formations.
The present collection consists of a number of teeth similar to those described by
Leidy (1856)
and later figured by him (
Leidy, 1860
, pl. 9, figs. 21-48)
.
AMNH 8513
is a large saber-shaped linguolabially compressed tooth. Both its anterior and posterior edges are serrated. It is either a maxilla or dentary tooth (
fig. 8M, N
). The premaxillary teeth are small with a Ushaped cross section. Morphologically similar, but larger, teeth come from the anterior part of the dentary. The premaxillary teeth (
AMNH 8514
,
fig. 8Q, R
) are usually smaller than the anterior dentary teeth (
AMNH 8515
,
fig. 80, P
) and have serrated crests lateral to the apex of the tooth that become more posterior toward the base of the tooth. A strong median keel is present that is not found in the larger dentary teeth.
1 [
Russell (1970)
revised the taxonomy of Upper Cretaceous carnosaurs and argued that
Deinodon horridus
is a nomen
dubium
and that individual teeth are not generically determinable (
Ibid
, p. 3). According to the classification presented by
Russell (1970)
and Colbert and Russell (1969) large carnivorous dinosaur teeth could be assigned most appropriately to the family
Tyrannosauridae
.] M.
C
. McKenna
.
The type specimen of
Ornithomimus grandis
Marsh (1890)
was supposedly recovered from the Eagle Sandstone, but probably came from the Judith River Formation, and was referred by
Gilmore (1920)
to
Deinodon
.