Diplotomodon
Diplotomodon horrificus
Pronounced:
Di-plo-Toe-moe-don
Diet:
Carnivore(meat-eater)
Name Means:
"Double Cutting
Tooth"
Length:
unknown
Height:
unknown
Weight:
unknown
Time:
Late Cretaceous
- 73 mya
Fossil remains for this
Dinosaur have been found in
North America
Diplotomodon was
one of the first
dinosaurs discovered
in North America,
but for nearly a
hundred years its
remains were thought
to belong to a fish!
It is hard to
believe that a
dinosaur and a fish
could be confused
with each other but
only a single tooth
of this creature has
been found. From
this one piece of
evidence we know
that it was a medium
sized meat-eater
that lived in what
is now New Jersey at
the end of the age
of dinosaurs.
Discovered in
1865, the single
tooth upon which
this genus was
founded was at first
thought to belong to
a plesiosaur.
Shortly after, it
was classified as a
fish and it remained
a fish until 1952
when reexamination
determined it to
belong to a
theropod, most
likely a megalosaur.
Most recently, it
has been suggested
that this is the
tooth of
Dryptosaurus
and that the genus
Diplotomodon is not
valid. |
