Dinosaur Genera List corrections #140

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

Many thanks to Ralph Molnar, Paul Barrett, and Matt Lamanna for sending the 
citation for Pinacosaurus mephistocephalus, which (for the record) is:

P. Godefroit, X. Pereda-Suberbiola, Li H. & Dong Z., 1999. "A new species of
the ankylosaurid dinosaur Pinacosaurus from the Late Cretaceous of Inner
Mongolia (P. R. China)." Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles
de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre, 69 Suppl. B:17-36.

Concerning Paleosaurus, there is a minor error in the JVP article by Benton, 
Juul, Storrs & Galton, which I happened to find last night after noticing a 
typo in DGL corrections #139: I had neglected to remove the type designator 
(a dagger: ?) following Palaeosauriscus cylindrodon. Wondering why it was 
there in the first place, I checked and discovered that Oskar Kuhn, in the 
1939 issue of Fossilium Catalogus (Pars 87, p. 57), had already designated 
the species Palaeosaurus cylindrodon as the type species, and thus by 
objective synonymy the type species of the genus Paleosaurus as well. Benton e
t al. attributed the initial type species designation to Steel (1970), who 
used P. platyodon, under the name Palaeosauriscus platyodon. Kuhn, 1939 is 
clearly earlier and, as it seems to be the first time an explicit type 
species is designated for this genus (odd that since 1840 nobody had bothered 
to do this), it takes priority over Steel, 1970. Odd also that Kuhn, who 
edited Steel, 1970, didn't catch this the first time around! Kuhn (1965: Fossi
lium Catalogus Pars 109: 22) also explicitly made Palaeosauriscus cylindrodon 
the type species of the replacement name Palaeosauriscus (assuming this was 
not the case when he coined the name in 1959; can't check this right now). So 
here is approximately how Paleosaurus and its species are presently listed in 
the European dinosaur species table; I threw a few more misspellings into the 
listing, since the spellings of the names are important for this genus.

Paleosaurus Riley & Stutchbury, 1840 [nomen dubium]*
    = Palaeosauriscus Kuhn, 1959 [nomen dubium]*
    = Palaeosaurus Riley & Stutchbury, 1836/Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1833 [nome
n nudum]*
    = Paläosaurus T. Plieninger, 1846 [sic]
    = Palaosaurus Reig, 1959 (not 1958) [sic]
    = Paleosaurus Riley & Stutchbury, 1837 [nomen nudum]*
    P. cylindrodon Riley & Stutchbury, 1840 [nomen dubium]?*
        = Palaeosauriscus cylindrodon (Riley & Stutchbury, 1840) Kuhn, 1959?*
        = Thecodontosaurus cylindrodon (Riley & Stutchbury, 1840) von Huene, 
1908 [nomen
            dubium]*
        = Palaeosaurus cylindricum Riley & Stutchbury, 1836 [nomen nudum]*
        = Thecodontosaurus cylindricum (Riley & Stutchbury, 1836) von Huene, 
1914 [nomen
            nudum]*
        = Palaeosaurus cylindrodon Riley & Stutchbury, 1837 [nomen nudum]*
        = Paleosaurus cylindrodon Riley & Stutchbury, 1837 [nomen nudum]*
        = Palaeosaurus cylinderidon Young, 1944 [sic]
        = Palaeosauriscus cylindricodon Kuhn, 1965 [sic]
        = Palaeosaurus cyclindridon Chure & McIntosh, 1989 [sic]
NOTE: Benton, Juul, Storrs & Galton, 2000 list Paleosaurus platyodon as the 
type species, as nominated by Steel (1970) under the name Palaeosauriscus 
platyodon; but Paleosaurus cylindrodon was nominated as the type species 
earlier by Kuhn (1939: Fossilium Catalogus Pars 87: p. 57) under the name Pala
eosaurus cylindrodon. As there seems to be no earlier explicit designation of 
a type species for this genus, Kuhn's must take priority over Steel's. Also, P
aleosaurus cylindrodon has page priority over Paleosaurus platyodon in Riley 
& Stutchbury, 1840.
    ?P. platyodon Riley & Stutchbury, 1840
        = Palaeosauriscus platyodon (Riley & Stutchbury, 1840) Kuhn, 1959 [nom
en dubium]*
        = Rileya platyodon (Riley & Stutchbury, 1840) von Huene, 1908 [nomen 
dubium]*
        = Thecodontosaurus platyodon (Riley & Stutchbury, 1840) von Huene, 
1908 [nomen
            dubium]*
        = Palaeosaurus platyodon Riley & Stutchbury, 1836 [nomen nudum]*
        = Paleosaurus platyodon Riley & Stutchbury, 1837 [nomen nudum]*
NOTE: The above species is probably a phytosaur (Hunt, 1994). Some material 
referred to this species under the name Rileya platyodon was subsequently 
made the type specimen of the species Rileyasuchus stutchburyi (as Rileya 
stutchburi) by von Huene, 1920. See also Rileyasuchus.
    ?P. sternbergii (Fitzinger, 1843) n. comb. [nomen nudum]*
        = Palaeosauriscus sternbergii (Fitzinger, 1843) [nomen nudum]*
        = Palaeosaurus sternbergii Fitzinger, 1843 [nomen nudum]*
NOTE: This species may belong to the crocodylian genus Palaeosaurus Geoffroy 
Saint-Hilaire, 1833 rather than to the thecodontian genus Palaeosauriscus 
Kuhn, 1959; but because it is a nomen nudum, this issue cannot be resolved. 
It has also been suggested in the literature that it is a captorhinomorph (R. 
E. Molnar, pers. comm.), but again, since the taxon is a nomen nudum, the 
basis for this determination is obscure.
    ?P. stricklandi (Davis, 1881) n. comb. [nomen dubium]*
        = Palaeosauriscus stricklandi (Davis, 1881) Steel, 1970 [nomen dubium]
*
        = Palaeosaurus stricklandi Davis, 1881 [nomen dubium]*
NOTE: The above tooth species is probably phytosaurian.
    ?P. subcylindrodon (von Huene, 1908) n. comb. [nomen dubium]
        = Thecodontosaurus subcylindrodon von Huene, 1908 [nomen dubium]
        = Palaeosauriscus subcylindrodon (von Huene, 1908) Kuhn, 1965 [nomen 
dubium]
        = Palaeosaurus subcylindrodon (von Huene, 1908) von Huene, 1932 [nomen
 dubium]
        = Thecodontosaurus subcylindrodon von Huene, 1905 [nomen nudum]
        = Palaeosauriscus subcylindricodon Kuhn, 1965 [sic]
NOTE: This species may be a herrerasaurian dinosaur (cf. Galton, 1984).
    Numerous species have over the years been referred to the genera Palaeosau
rus, Palaeosauriscus, and Paleosaurus, some of which have at times been 
considered dinosaurian. Some may indeed be dinosaurian, but some others are 
now considered to be different kinds of archosaurs. Species listed here under 
Paleosaurus are those not yet referred to other genera; species that at one 
time or another have been referred to this genus but are presently referred 
to nondinosaurian genera are not listed. The new combinations above are 
simply referrals to this genus under the spelling Paleosaurus, adopted as the 
correct spelling by Benton, Juul, Storrs & Galton, 2000, who note that the 
spelling Palaeosaurus is preoccupied, while the replacement name Palaeosaurisc
us, proposed by Kuhn (1959), is unnecessary because the spelling Paleosaurus 
remains available.

It occurs to me that, since I began compiling dinosaur names shortly after 
the publication of Don Glut's original Dinosaur Dictionary back in 1972, that 
I've continuously maintained a machine-readable dinosaur-name table for about 
28 years now. Sheesh.

This post is simply seething with italic and boldface type; too bad it will 
be squelched for most readers.