Aetonyx
Sign in to saveAetonyx is a dubious genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. Its only species is A. palustris, which was named by Robert Broom in 1911 based on a fragmentary skeleton from the upper Elliot Formation found near Fouriesburg, Free State Province. Broom considered it as a species of "carnivorous dinosaur". In 1924, Sydney H. Haughton assigned a second specimen to Aetonyx, which is also from Fouriesburg. In 1932, Friedrich von Huene suggested that the species Thecodontosaurus dubius, which Haughton had named in his 1924 paper, is a synonym of Aetonyx palustris.
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3 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Taxonomic history and status
- References
Aetonyx is a dubious genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. Its only species is A. palustris, which was named by Robert Broom in 1911 based on a fragmentary skeleton from the upper Elliot Formation found near Fouriesburg, Free State Province. Broom considered it as a species of "carnivorous dinosaur". In 1924, Sydney H. Haughton assigned a second specimen to Aetonyx, which is also from Fouriesburg. In 1932, Friedrich von Huene suggested that the species Thecodontosaurus dubius, which Haughton had named in his 1924 paper, is a synonym of Aetonyx palustris. The species was later synonymised with Massospondylus harriesi and Massospondylus carinatus. A 2004 review lists it as an indeterminate sauropodomorph.
== Discovery == Aetonyx was named in 1911 by Robert Broom from a fragmentary skeleton excavated by A. R. Walker, who worked at the Iziko South African Museum, where the specimen is still stored (specimen number SAM-PK-2768-2770). The specimen was found near Fouriesburg, Free State Province, in sediments of the upper Elliot Formation, which was deposited during the Hettangian and Sinemurian ages of the Early Jurassic.