Drinker (dinosaur)
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Drinker Temporal range: Late Jurassic |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | †Ornithopoda |
| Genus: | †Drinker (dinosaur) |
| Type species | |
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†Drinker nisti Bakker et al., 1990 |
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Drinker (named after the palaentologist Edward Drinker Cope) was a genus of hypsilophodont dinosaur from the late Jurassic period of North America. Although based on good remains, it remains obscure due to a lack of post-naming publications.
A relatively small dinosaur, Drinker was approximately 2 meters (6 ft) long and may have weighed up to 10 kilograms (22 lb). It was a biped with short arms, a small head, and long, strong legs.
Drinker has sometimes been regarded informally as a possible synonym of contemporaneous Othnielia (now Othnielosaurus), but the latest reviews have kept it separate. It has usually been regarded as a "hypsilophodont" of uncertain but basal affinities; Phyllodon from the Late Jurassic of Portugal may have been related.
In 1990, Robert Bakker, Peter Galton, James Siegwarth, and James Filla described the partial remains of Drinker nisti. The name is somewhat ironic; Drinker, named for renowned palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope whose infamous "bone wars" with rival Othniel Charles Marsh produced many dinosaur fossils which are world-famous today, was described as a probable close relative of Othnielia, named for Marsh. The species name refers to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Discovered by Siegwarth and Filla in upper Morrison Formation beds at Como Bluff, Wyoming, Drinker was based on a partial subadult skeleton (CPS 106) including partial jaws, vertebrae, and partial limbs. Numerous additional specimens from the age spectrum found in the same area were assigned to it, mostly consisting of vertebral and hindlimb remains, and teeth. The authors considered it to be too archaic to be a true "hypsilophodont", particularly in teeth lacking a strong central vertical ridge, and placed it with Othnielia (Othnielosaurus) in a separate unnamed group. Since 1990, little has been published on this genus. Drinker remains are present in stratigraphic zones 5 and 6.
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