In Depth
Iuticosaurus is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur, though one that is widely regarded as dubious. Why it is dubious stems all the way back to 1887 when Richard Lydekker named two caudal vertebrae (BMNH R146a and BMNH 151) as belonging to the genus Onithopsis. His reason for this was that fossils of the tail of Onithopsis were not known, though others such as Harry Govier Seeley and John Hulke criticised this decision, because if Onithopsis tail vertebrae were not already established in relation to other fossils, then there was no way of knowing if these new caudal vertebrae truly belonged to Onithopsis. In addition to this a similarity to the caudal vertebrae of Titanosaurus was also noted.
In 1888, Lydekker moved the caudal vertebrae from Onithopsis into Titanosaurus as Titanosaurus sp. a, while also moving a third vertebra (BMNH 32390) into Titanosaurus sp. b. Then in 1929, Friedrich von Huene named these as distinct species of Titanosaurus, with BMNH R146a and BMNH 151 becoming T. valdensis and BMNH 32390 becoming T. lydekkeri. Then nothing much happened until 1993 when Jean le Loeuff re-described these two species as a new genus called Iuticosaurus. This made Titanosaurus Valdensis and Titanosaurus lydekkeri into Iuticosaurus Valdensis and Iuticosaurus lydekkeri, however, le Loeuff soon considered I. lydekkeri to be a nomen dubium.
Currently, Iuticosaurus is only represented by two caudal vertebrae that don’t really present much more than a generic titanosaurian form, which has led others to speculate that the Iuticosaurus genus is itself dubious.
Further Reading
- On certain dinosaurian vertebrae from the Cretaceous of India and the Isle of Wight. - Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 43: 157–160. - R. Lydekker - 1887. - Catalogue of fossil reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum. Pt. I. Containing the orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria. - British Museum of Natural History, London. - R. Lydekker - 1888. - Los saurisquios y ornitisquios del Cret�ceo Argentino. - Anales del Museo de La Plata (series 3) 3: 1–196 - F. von Huene - 1929. - European titanosaurids. - Revue de Pal�obiologie, Volume Sp�ciale 7:105-117 - J. Le Loeuff - 1993. - D�couverte d’Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) dans le Maastrichtien des Corbi�res (Aude, France). - Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Sciences, S�rie II 316: 1023-1029. - J. le Loeuff, E. Buffetaut, M. Martin, V. Martin & H. Tong - 1993.
