Diodorus (genus)

Diodorus
Temporal range: Late Triassic, 216 Ma
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Dentary and tooth
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Dinosauriformes
Clade: †Silesauridae
Genus: †Diodorus
Kammerer, Nesbitt, & Shubin, 2012
Species: †D. scytobrachion
Binomial name
Diodorus scytobrachion
Kammerer, Nesbitt, & Shubin, 2012

Diodorus is a genus of silesaurid dinosauriforms (relatives of basal dinosaurs) from the Late Triassic (?Carnian - Norian) Timezgadiouine Formation of the Argana Basin of Morocco. It is named after Diodorus, a legendary king of the Berber people and son of Sufax, the founder of Tangier and also in honour of Diodorus Siculus, a 1st-century Greek historian who wrote about North Africa. The specific epithet, scytobrachion, is ancient Greek for "leather armed", but also honors Dionysius Scytobrachion, a mythographer who chronicled the mythical history of North Africa. The holotype and all referred remains were found in a single quarry at the base of the Irohalene Mudstone Member of the Timezgadiouine Formation in the northeastern Argana Basin, 2.9 kilometres (1.8 mi) east of Imziln, Morocco.

Left femur
Limb elements

Diodorus can be distinguished from other silesaurids by the presence of forward-slanted teeth that decrease in size towards the front end of the dentary (lower jaw) and a distinct side ridge running parallel to the dentary tooth socket margin. In a phylogenetic analysis, Diodorus was found to be the sister taxon to the Brazilian silesaurid Sacisaurus.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Kammerer, C.F., Nesbitt, S.J., and Shubin, N.H. (2012). "The first basal dinosauriform (Silesauridae) from the Late Triassic of Morocco." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 57(2): 277-284. doi:10.4202/app.2011.0015
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