Ornithopsis
Sign in to saveOrnithopsis (meaning "bird-likeness") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England and possibly Germany. The type species, which is the only species seen as valid today, is O. hulkei, which is only known from fragmentary remains.
Article
5 sectionsContents
- History of discovery
- Additional species
- Description
- References
- External links
Ornithopsis (meaning "bird-likeness") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England and possibly Germany. The type species, which is the only species seen as valid today, is O. hulkei, which is only known from fragmentary remains.
==History of discovery== thumb|upright|left|Vertebra NHMUK PV R28632 in anterior view showing internal texture Gideon Algernon Mantell described many fossils that had been previously collected from the Tilgate Forest of the Early Cretaceous Wealden Formation in his 1833 paper on the geology of southeast England, including a bone he considered to be the of Iguanodon, otherwise only known definitively from teeth that had been found in the area since 1822. The bone was redescribed by Richard Owen in 1854, who reaffirmed its referral as a quadrate of Iguanodon, but also suggested it could be the same bone of Streptospondylus or Cetiosaurus as it was not directly associated with the characteristic teeth of Iguanodon. This specimen is stored as British Museum of Natural History R2239, having been purchased from Mantell in 1838.