fossilman7 Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 is trachodon its own species? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I remember that name from when I was a kid. The genus Trachodon was later determined to be a junior synonym of Anatosaurus and maybe now Anatotitan. One of the dinosaur guys probably has the details. is trachodon its own species? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I wish I knew the answer to the question as I do spend some time chasing old dead oversized lizards. But just to set the record straight, and to keep things technically correct, Trachodon is a genus, not a species. OK, Heck I'll look it up... (pulls The Dinosauria by Weishampe, Dodson and Osmolska off the shelf; thumbs through the listing of hadrosaur species...) There are several different species of Trachodon. Seems they have all been sunk... that is they are no longer valid. T. atavus is considered to be Edmontosaurus regalis. T longiceps is probably a Anatotitan copei. Six other species are nomina dubia , which means basically they are dubious names. This is because they are species identified on very little material... too few parts to really name a new species. This sort of thing used to happen a lot in the old days. Still happens now but less so. The answer is... Trachodon is no longer a real dinosaur name. I love the name Halszka Osmolska... it don't get no more poetic than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear-dog Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 What the heck is a Trochodon? Bear-dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 What the heck is a Trochodon? The prototypical "duck-billed dinosaur" of my youth. I built one out of lumber scraps when I was six "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 from looking it up it sounded like some tooth fragments from several different kinds of dinosaurs were found in the 1800s and people felt obligated for a time to run with a made-up genus to lump them in until later when somebody figured out they weren't all from the same type of dinosaur. they needed me around back then, because i coulda helped by making things simpler and just calling all these things BPFs. whut? oh. BPFs are "Bisonesque Paleo Fragments". it's a term used by professionals to "cache" unidentified stuff until some future point when/if the things get id'd for certain enough to risk bar bets on the names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 One of the first dino "mummies" was referred to (the now invalid) Trachodon; it appeared to show webbing between the front toes, which was interpreted to mean that is was semi aquatric (leading to illustrations of it paddling about). A later Paleontologist, upon seeing a mummified (modern) camel in the Arabian desert noted that the foot pads, in their dessicated condition, looked just like webbing between the toes; this observation freed the duckbill from a life in the water, and placed it in an arid environment. Alas, poor Trachodon, we knew you not at all... "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diplotomodon Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Ah, Trachodon...your general, stereotypical, perhaps-too-duck-like duckbill hadrosaur. Given that all the specimens are now either Anatotitan, Edmontosaurus, "Anatosaurus" etc., I personally consider Trachodon to be one of those "wastebasket taxons." What a wonderful menagerie! Who would believe that such as register lay buried in the strata? To open the leaves, to unroll the papyrus, has been an intensely interesting though difficult work, having all the excitement and marvelous development of a romance. And yet the volume is only partly read. Many a new page I fancy will yet be opened. -- Edward Hitchcock, 1858 Formerly known on the forum as Crimsonraptor @Diplotomodon on Twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Yeah, I checked the second edition of "The Dinosauria" and see that the species of Trachodon, Anatosaurus, and Anatotitan are all under Edmontosaurus. I should've checked the book before posting. Yeah, Trachodon was a name used in the 60's and into the 70's, I believe. (pulls The Dinosauria by Weishampe, Dodson and Osmolska off the shelf; thumbs through the listing of hadrosaur species...) There are several different species of Trachodon. Seems they have all been sunk... that is they are no longer valid. T. atavus is considered to be Edmontosaurus regalis. T longiceps is probably a Anatotitan copei. Six other species are nomina dubia , which means basically they are dubious names. This is because they are species identified on very little material... too few parts to really name a new species. This sort of thing used to happen a lot in the old days. Still happens now but less so. The answer is... Trachodon is no longer a real dinosaur name. I love the name Halszka Osmolska... it don't get no more poetic than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I personally consider Trachodon to be one of those "wastebasket taxons." That happens when someone erects a genus based on a tooth... "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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