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Tenontosaurus tilletti

Osteichthyes - Tenontosauridae

Taxonomy
Tenontosaurus tilletti was named by Ostrom (1970). Its type specimen is AMNH 3040, a partial skeleton, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is AMNH 33-1, Middle Dome, which is in an Albian/Cenomanian terrestrial claystone in the Cloverly Formation of Montana. It is the type species of Tenontosaurus.

It was corrected as Tenontosaurus tillettorum by Olshevsky (1991), Olshevsky (1992), Buchholz (2002), Parsons and Parsons (2009); it was corrected as Tenontosaurus tilleti by Galton (2009), Dieudonné et al. (2016).

Synonymy list
YearName and author
1970Tenontosaurus tilletti Ostrom p. 85 figs. Pl. 16-21
1974Tenontosaurus tilletti Langston p. 88
1975Tenontosaurus tilletti Taquet p. 503
1980Tenontosaurus tilletti Sues p. 52
1982Tenontosaurus tilletti Jurcsák p. 181
1989Tenontosaurus tilletti Galton p. 218
1990Tenontosaurus tilletti Sues and Norman p. 500
1991Tenontosaurus tillettorum Olshevsky p. 21
1992Tenontosaurus tillettorum Olshevsky p. 225
1992Tenontosaurus tilletti Weishampel and Heinrich p. 171
1997Tenontosaurus tilletti Kirkland p. 98
1997Tenontosaurus tilletti Maxwell p. 128
1997Tenontosaurus tilletti Turner p. 788
1997Tenontosaurus tilletti Winkler et al. p. 345 fig. 19
1998Tenontosaurus tilletti Brinkman et al. p. 19
1998Tenontosaurus tilletti Lipka
1999Tenontosaurus tilletti Casanovas et al. p. 348
1999Tenontosaurus tilletti Wright p. 215
2002Tenontosaurus tillettorum Buchholz p. 19
2004Tenontosaurus tilletti Norman p. 414
2004Tenontosaurus tilletti Stanford et al. p. 257
2007Tenontosaurus tilletti Hübner and Rauhut p. 372
2008Tenontosaurus tilletti Butler et al. p. 11
2009Tenontosaurus tilletti Butler and Sullivan p. 31
2009Tenontosaurus tilleti Galton p. 215
2009Tenontosaurus tilletti Guenther p. 1429
2009Tenontosaurus tilletti Horner et al. p. 741
2009Tenontosaurus tillettorum Parsons and Parsons p. 721
2010Tenontosaurus tilletorum Carpenter and Ishida p. 155
2010Tenontosaurus tilletti McDonald et al. p. 33 fig. 39
2011Tenontosaurus tilletti Barrett and Maidment p. 404
2011Tenontosaurus tilletti Zanno and Makovicky p. 318
2012Tenontosaurus tilleti Han et al. p. 1391 fig. 14
2012Tenontosaurus tilletti McDonald p. 2
2013Tenontosaurus tilletti Zheng et al.
2015Tenontosaurus tilletti Adams p. 9
2015Tenontosaurus tilletti Frederickson et al. p. 64
2015Tenontosaurus tilletti Thomas pp. 5-6
2016Tenontosaurus tilletti Dieudonné et al. p. 30
2016Tenontosaurus tilleti Dieudonné et al. p. 66
2018Tenontosaurus tilletti Bell et al. p. 15
2018Tenontosaurus tilletti Frederickson et al. p. 6
2018Tenontosaurus tilletti Herne et al. p. 45
2018Tenontosaurus tilletti Madzia et al. p. 973 fig. 4
2018Tenontosaurus tilletti Xu et al. p. 562
2019Tenontosaurus tilletti Andrzejewski et al. p. 38
2019Tenontosaurus tilletti Bell et al. p. 3
2019Tenontosaurus tilletti Cruzado-Caballero et al. p. 215
2019Tenontosaurus tilletti Herne et al. p. 551
2019Tenontosaurus tilletti Ibiricu et al. p. 279
2020Tenontosaurus tilletti Dalla Vecchia p. 594
2020Tenontosaurus tilletti Dieudonné et al.
2020Tenontosaurus tilletti Dieudonné et al. p. 411

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
—Bilateria
—EubilateriaAx 1987
—Deuterostomia
phylumChordataHaeckel 1874
subphylumVertebrata
superclassGnathostomata
classOsteichthyes
subclassSarcopterygii()
subclassDipnotetrapodomorpha(Nelson 2006)
subclassTetrapodomorpha()
—Tetrapoda
—Reptiliomorpha
—Anthracosauria
subclassAmphibiosauriaKuhn 1967
—Cotylosauria()
—Amniota
—Sauropsida
classReptilia
subclassEureptilia()
—Romeriida
RankNameAuthor
—Diapsida()
—Archosauromorpha(Huene 1946)
—Crocopoda
—ArchosauriformesGauthier 1986
—Eucrocopoda
—Archosauria()
informalAvemetatarsalia
—Ornithodira
—Dinosauromorpha
—Dinosauriformes
—Dinosauria()
—Ornithischia()
—Genasauria
—Cerapoda
—Ornithopoda()
—Clypeodonta
—Iguanodontia()
—Rhabdodontomorpha
familyTenontosauridae
genusTenontosaurus
speciestilletti

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

†Tenontosaurus tilletti Ostrom 1970
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Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
D. Thomas 2015Revised Cranial Diagnosis (emended from Ostrom, 1970; for revised postcranial diagnosis, see Forster, 1990). Skull with very large exter- nal nares, long slitlike antorbital fenestra and supplementary inferior temporal fenestra beneath the usual lateral fenestra. Orbit roughly triangular, with dorsoventrally straight anterior and sharply rounded posterior margins (emended by this study), and larger than either lateral fenestra. Premaxilla, which nearly encircles the nares, flares inferiorly into broad, U-shaped edentulous beak, opposed by shallow, horseshoe-shaped predentary with pseudo-tooth projections along upper margin. Mandibles bear a long, curved retroarticular process. Quadrate long, very narrow transversely; posterior margin convex rather than concave. Paroccipital processes hook-shaped, and downturned at extremity. Dentary teeth with very prominent vertical keel, maxillary teeth without keels but with numerous nonparallel, subequal minor ridges.
The following characteristics of Tenontosaurus tilletti were recovered in the systematic analysis described below. Characters are followed by “(character number:state present),” found in Appendices 2 and 3. The first set of character states are presumed plesiomorphies of T. tilletti: lack of contact between the jugal and quadrate (20:0), lack of quadrate foramen (25:0), large quadratojugal (26:1), contact between nasal and lacrimal (28:0), articulation of the jugal with the posterior maxilla (33:0), lack of quadrate notch (37:0), lack of contact between the parietal and prootic (49:1), dorsal edge of the ilium above the ischial peduncle not thickened and beveled (87:0), straight ischial shaft (92:0), and ischial shaft flattened in cross section (93:0). Tenontosaurus tilletti shares the following apomorphic characters with other members of Iguanodontia: frontal contributes to less than half of dorsal orbital rim (8:1), parallel dorsoventral borders of the dentary (54:1), single surangular foramen (69:2), dorsal neural spines rectangular with height more than twice width (72:1), manus digit III bearing three phalanges (84:1), and a pubic shaft shorter than the ischium, with no pubic symphysis (91:1). The following characters are apomorphic to the genus Tenontosaurus: nasal overlapped by nasal process of the premaxilla (13:1), postorbital process comprises posterior-most tip of jugal (22:1), triangular outline of parietal in dorsal aspect (45:1), denticulate occlusal margin of predentary (62:1), laterally reflected boss on anterior margin of the scapula (75:1), laterally compressed and bar-like prepubic process of the pubis (90:1), and an obturator process present near the midshaft of the ischium (94:1). Finally, the following suite of characters is autapomorphic to T. tilletti: lack of premaxillary teeth (3:1), length of suture between frontals and parietal equal to about two-thirds the combined transverse width of the frontals (7:1), axial length of the nasals one and one-half times axial length of the frontals (10:1), posteriorly curved and distally flared scapular blade (74:2), distal phalanges of manus digit II claw-like and digit III a nub (83:2), and straight distal shaft of the femur (96:1). Two autapomorphies for T. tilletti (internal contacts of the squamosal with the jugal and of the basioccipital with the laterosphenoids) were not coded in this analysis as their status is unable to be investigated in the other taxa analyzed at this time.
Measurements
No measurements are available
Composition: hydroxyapatiteo
Entire body: yesg
Adult length: 10 to < 100o
Adult width: 1.0 to < 10o
Adult height: 1.0 to < 10o
Architecture: compact or denseo
Ontogeny: accretion, modification of partso
Grouping: gregariouso
Environment: terrestrialo
Locomotion: actively mobileo
Life habit: ground dwellingo
Diet: herbivoresubo
Reproduction: oviparouso
Dispersal: direct/internalo
Dispersal 2: mobileo
Created: 2005-08-25 05:58:58
Modified: 2005-08-25 07:58:58
Source: g = genus, subo = suborder, o = order
References: Marsh 1875, Peczkis 1995, Benton 1983, Kiessling 2004

Age range: base of the Late/Upper Aptian to the top of the Albian or 119.57000 to 100.50000 Ma

Collections (53 total)


Time interval Ma Country or state Original ID and collection number
Aptian121.4 - 113.2USA (Montana) Tenontosaurus tilletti (137607)
Aptian - Early/Lower Albian121.4 - 110.1USA (Montana) Tenontosaurus tilletti (25077 50347)
Aptian - Early/Lower Albian121.4 - 110.1USA (Wyoming) Tenontosaurus tilletti (50354 50355)
Aptian - Albian121.4 - 100.5USA (Oklahoma) Tenontosaurus sp. (24178)
Aptian - Albian121.4 - 100.5USA (Montana) Tenontosaurus tilletti (50543 50684 50685 50686 50687 50690 50691 50710 50713 50719 50720 137617)
Aptian - Albian121.4 - 100.5USA (Wyoming) Tenontosaurus tilletti (102299 137567)
Late/Upper Aptian - Early/Lower Albian119.57 - 110.1USA (Montana) Tenontosaurus tilletti (229407)
Albian113.2 - 100.5USA (Montana) Camptosaurus sp. (50529) Tenontosaurus tilletti (50481 50482 50483 50488 50491 50492 50503 50525 50526 50527 50531 50538 50539 50540 50696 50701 50702 50706 50707 50718 52436)
Albian113.2 - 100.5USA (Wyoming) Tenontosaurus tilletti (50500)
Middle Albian - Early/Lower Cenomanian110.1 - 93.9USA (Montana) Camptosaurus sp. (25076) Ornithopoda indet. (50478) Tenontosaurus tilletti (type locality: 47346 50348 50474 50477 50490 50541)
Middle Albian - Early/Lower Cenomanian110.1 - 93.9USA (Wyoming) Tenontosaurus tilletti (50498)