Palaeoscincus
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Palaeoscincus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous |
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| Palaeoscincus costatus holotype tooth | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Genus: |
Palaeoscincus Leidy, 1856 |
| Type species | |
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Palaeoscincus costatus Leidy, 1856 |
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Palaeoscincus (meaning "ancient skink" from the Greek παλαιός and σκίγγος) is a dubious genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur based on teeth from the mid-late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana. Like several other dinosaur genera named by Joseph Leidy (Deinodon, Thespesius, and Trachodon), it is an historically important genus with a convoluted taxonomy that has been all but abandoned by modern dinosaur paleontologists. Because of its wide use in the early 20th century, it was somewhat well-known to the general public, often through illustrations of an animal with the armor of Edmontonia and the tail club of an ankylosaurid.
Seven species have been referred to this genus over the years, six of which have since been reassigned to other genera:
Today, the type species P. costatus and thereby the genus is considered to be an indeterminate ankylosaurian, perhaps an indeterminate nodosaurid.
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Wikipedia