Madagascar's "Bothriospondylus" Sauropod Teeth

[Troodon]

Madagascar mid Jurassic sauropods are poorly understood, like many other regions of the world, but with new discoveries and research, revisions do occur.

Bothriospondylus teeth from Madagascar are commonly sold by dealers and online auction sites. I do not profess to be an expert in this region but am aware of a 2010 paper by Philip Mannion that concluded that this genus is invalid. The genus is also described from England, France, Portugal and Argentina but material available to collectors is extremely rare or not available at all. The paper suggest a determination for the described Bothriospondylus species by country and for Madagascar it recommends calling it Eusauropoda indet. The paper also concludes that although there are potentially distinctive elements in the type specimen Bothriospondylus its preferable to delay proposing a new name for this taxon until a more compete specimen is studied.

Eusauropoda indet.

Other valid sauropod species from the mid-jurassic period of Madagascar

Archaeodontosaurus descouensi

Teeth are leaf shaped and have large serrations

Lapparentosaurus madagascariensis

Teeth are similar to Archaeodontosaurus but narrower and without serrations. I've attached a photo of jaw section that I cannot positively identify as one but it may be.

Mannion's paper can be downloaded here:

PDF

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00919.x/abstract

[Dracorex_hogwartsia]

The teeth that I have been able to acquire all seem to come in two different looks. I have jet black teeth that have very thick rugose enamel and then I have light brown/caramel colored teeth that have thin very smooth enamel. Have you noticed this difference.

[Troodon]

I looked at all my teeth and jaws and the crowns were either black or dark brown. The enamel was typical of the teeth in the post. I'm sure locality and jaw to jaw variation plays a part in what you are seeing.

[Dracorex_hogwartsia]

Here is a tooth that looks different from any of the pictures you've posted. Any thoughts on this species. The tooth is 3 cm.

[Troodon]

Yep different. They have so many different sauropod. Formation and age?

[Dracorex_hogwartsia]

Yep different. They have so many different sauropod. Formation and age?

That's a good question and I hate to say it but I'm afraid I don't know. I bought this tooth a long time ago and I can't even remember if the seller even had that information.

[Troodon]

I have a number of different sauropod jaw sections from their cretaceous, mostly titanosaurus but this one looks jurassic. Nice tooth may be a positional Archaeodontosaurus with those serrates, no idea.

[Dracorex_hogwartsia]

As the title of your post says, this tooth as were most all of the Madagascan sauropod teeth I have, sold to me as Bothriospondylus. As usual, I just take it with a grain of salt that that's probably not correct. Getting good information on Madagascan teeth can be difficult. The only Archaeodontosaurus tooth that I was able to obtain unfortunately arrived broken in many pieces. I haven't been able to obtain another one. Yours are very beautiful!

[Dracorex_hogwartsia]

This is a picture of some beautiful Bothriospondylus teeth I got off the internet. I wish they were mine!

[Troodon]

Nice teeth, yours could be a positional one with just no wear.

Here a jaw that is in my collection have to ID it but think it's one of those Eurosauropods so no real ID. I have already posted these pictures somewhere.

[Dracorex_hogwartsia]

Nice teeth, yours could be a positional one with just no wear.

Here a jaw that is in my collection have to ID it but think it's one of those Eurosauropods so no real ID. I have already posted these pictures somewhere.

Bothrips Jaws.jpg

IMG_1620 (1280x853).jpg

You and I obviously deal with some of the same people. No big surprise actually, the fossil world is not that large. I was offered this same jaw. Unfortunately a little beyond my budget. A very beautiful piece! I'm glad you got it.

[DD1991]

On 4/9/2016 at 12:25 PM, Dracorex_hogwartsia said:

This is a picture of some beautiful Bothriospondylus teeth I got off the internet. I wish they were mine!

The sauropod taxon from Damparis that these teeth represent was named Vouivria damparisensis by Mannion et al. (2017). The true Bothriospondylus is restricted to the type species B. suffosus from the Kimmeridgian of southern England, and one nominal species from the Bathonian (B. robustus) belongs to its own genus Marmarospondylus Owen, 1875.

 

Philip D. Mannion, Ronan Allain & Olivier Moine, 2017.The earliest known titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur and the evolution of Brachiosauridae. PeerJ 5: e3217 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3217

[Jaimin013]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narindasaurus

 

The holotype was discovered in the Isalo III Formation before 1894 by Joseph Thomas Last and were briefly noted on by Paul Lemoine in 1906. Armand Thevenin (1861-1942) was the first to diagnose Narindasaurus. In 1907, he placed it within the now obsolete species "Bothriospondylus madagascariensis" which is now known as Lapparentosaurus. It was briefly mentioned in 1972 and it was reevaluated in 2008 and 2010 as both a distinct taxon and a non-neosauropod eusauropod. It was classified as a turiasaur in 2015. The species Narindasaurus thevenini was formally named in 2020.

 

Rafael Royo-Torres, Alberto Cobos, Pedro Mocho, Luis Alcalá, Origin and evolution of turiasaur dinosaurs set by means of a new ‘rosetta’ specimen from Spain, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 191, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 201–227, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa091

[Kane]

12 hours ago, Georgelex said:

How can we effectively utilize UV laser drones to excavate and identify fossils in hard-to-reach or inaccessible areas, taking advantage of their fluorescence properties?

This seems a tangential question. Perhaps you should consider remaining on topic, or create a topic of your own.