Avalonianus

Avalonianus Temporal range: Late Triassic, Rhaetian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Archosauriformes
Clade:	Archosauria
Genus:	†Avalonianus Kuhn, 1961
Species:	†A. sanfordi
Binomial name
†Avalonianus sanfordi Seeley, 1898
Synonyms
Avalonia Seeley, 1898 (preoccupied) Picrodon? Seeley, 1898

Holotype tooth of the possible synonym Picrodon

Avalonianus is a highly dubious and possibly invalid genus of archosaur from the Late Triassic Westbury Formation of England. It was first described in 1898 by Harry Seeley with the name Avalonia,[1] but that name was preoccupied (Walcott, 1889), so Oskar Kuhn renamed it in 1961, albeit with no epithet (although Seeley added the epithet sanfordi in 1898[1]). It was thought to be a prosauropod, but later analysis revealed it was actually a chimera,[2] with the original teeth coming from a non-dinosaurian ornithosuchian (or possibly an early theropod), and later-referred post-cranial prosauropod remains (which were renamed Camelotia).[3] The only sufficient remains attributable to Avalonianus are several now lost fossil teeth from the chimera that were referred to Archosauria.

References

1. H. G. Seeley. (1898). On large terrestrial saurians from the Rhaetic Beds of Wedmore Hill, described as Avalonia sanfordi and Picrodon herveyi. Geological Magazine, decade 4 5:1-6
2. P. M. Galton. (1988). Saurischian dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic of England: Camelotia (Prosauropoda, Melanorosauridae) and Avalonianus (Theropoda, ?Carnosauria). Palaeontographica Abteilung A 250(4-6):155-172
3. Go to Camelotia for more information