Trimucrodon (which means three pointed teeth) is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Alcobaça Formation of what is now Portugal. It has been classified as a basal ornithischian, but is a nomen dubium :(doubtful name) it is a "tooth genus" known only from its teeth.It was first classified by Thulborn that Trimucrodon is a member of the Fabrosauridae. José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca in 2001 placed it within the Heterodontosauridae. However, recent authors have considered it a basal ornthischian of uncertain affiliations.
Discovery and naming[]
Between 1962 and 1967 German zoologist and paleontologist Georg Krusat uncovered mammal fossils near Porto Dinheiro, Lourinha, in layers of the Camadas de Alcobaça Formation. This rock unit was then seen as dating from the Kimmeridgian stage, around 150 to 155 million years ago. One small tooth was recognised by Richard A. Thulborn as dinosaurian instead of mammalian and in 1973 he described and named it Trimucrodon cuneatus; the paper was not published until 1975. The generic name is derived from Latin tri- ('three'), + mucro ('dagger point'), + Ancient Greek ὀδούς, ὀδών (odoús, odṓn, 'tooth').[Wedge Shaped teeth.]
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