Alocodon

Alocodon is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur known from multiple teeth from the Middle or Late Jurassic Cabaços Formation of Portugal, and also the Forest Marble and Chipping Norton Formations of England. A single species is known, A. kuehnei.

Discovery and naming

The taxon was first described in 1973 by Richard A. Thulborn for an assemblage of teeth from the Pedrógão locality of Portugal, distinguished by an enlarged central denticle on the teeth, with the name taken from the Greek alox and odon meaning 'furrow tooth'. The type specimen, a single tooth, is stored in the Museu Geológico do Instituto Geológico e Mineiro in Lisbon, Portugal, formerly having been kept in the collections of the Free University of Berlin as IPFUB P X 1, and comes from an individual under 2 m (6.6 ft) in length. Though it was originally described as having been found in an unnamed deposit in the Portuguese Leiria District of upper Callovian age, it was identified as having come from the lower Oxfordian Cabaços Formation. Alongside the 158 isolated teeth from Portugal assigned to Alocodon, some isolated teeth from the Bathonian Forest Marble and Chipping Norton Formations of England have been assigned to as cf. Alocodon sp. based on similarity.

Classification

Alocodon was originally referred to as a member of the ornithopod family Fabrosauridae by Thulborn in 1973, closest to Fabrosaurus but also related to Echinodon and Trimucrodon. Peter M. Galton retained it in the family in 1978, though he noted that there were significant differences between Alocodon and Fabrosaurus, and the Middle to Late Jurassic fabrosaurids Alocodon, Trimucrodon and Echinodon were representative of three independent branches of the family, with Nanosaurus not preserving enough material to determine its relationships.