Extinct genus of dinosaurs
Deinodon (Greek for "terrible tooth") is a dubious tyrannosaurid dinosaur genus containing a single species, Deinodon horridus. "D. horridus" is known only from a set of teeth found in the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana and named by paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1856. These were the first tyrannosaurid remains to be described and had been collected by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. The teeth of "Deinodon" were slightly heterodont, and the holotype of "Aublysodon" can probably be assigned to "Deinodon".
History and classification.
It is likely that the fossilized teeth of "D. horridus" belonged to the dinosaur later identified as "Gorgosaurus libratus". In a 1922 study, William Diller Matthew &amp; Barnum Brown found that the teeth of "D. horridus" and "G. libratus" were indistinguishable from each other, and that they almost certainly belonged to the same species. However, because "D. horridus" was not yet known from any skeletal remains, they refrained from formally declaring them to be synonyms. In a 1970 review, Dale Russell stated that because the teeth of "D. horridus" could not be distinguished from either "G. libratus" or his newly described species "Daspletosaurus torosus", it must be considered a "nomen vanum" ("empty name"). Since Russell published his opinion, most researchers have regarded "Deinodon" as a "nomen dubium", though some have argued that since "Deinodon" and "Gorgosaurus" cannot be distinguished, they should be synonymized with "D. horridus" as the valid name for "Gorgosaurus" skeletons. Additionally, several researchers have agreed that the genus "Aublysodon" (including the species "A. mirandus" and "A. lateralis"), should also be considered a synonym of "Deinodon", since it is based on incisor teeth that likely come from the same animal. Lambe (1902) went further, and said that as originally named, "Deinodon" was not preoccupied, and instead, regarded "Aublysodon" as a "nomen nudum".
Description.
"Deinodon" is known from a few, slightly heterodont teeth.
A few phalanges, and a metatarsal with fragments of others, were found to be possibly assignable to "D. horridus" by Lambe in 1902.
List of species and synonyms.
Numerous species were referred to the genus "Deinodon" in the past. However, because most researchers now consider the genus and its type species "nomina dubia", any additional species referred to the genus cannot be supported.
References.
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