Dinodocus

Dinodocus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
Humerus of the holotype
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Sauropoda
Genus:	†Dinodocus Owen, 1884
Species:	†D. mackesoni
Binomial name
†Dinodocus mackesoni Owen, 1884
Synonyms
Pelorosaurus mackesoni Woodward, 1908

Dinodocus (meaning "terrible beam") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur, named by Richard Owen in 1884, with the type species, Dinodocus mackesoni. The name is now usually considered a nomen dubium. The name was given to some fossil bones from the Lower Greensand Group (Lower Cretaceous) of Hythe, Kent, England, were formerly placed in the genus Pelorosaurus (Mantell, 1850¹), but a review by Upchurch et al. (2004) concluded that Dinodocus is a nomen dubium.²

The holotype was discovered in 1840 by Mr H. B. Mackeson. In 1841, Richard Owen noted on the fossils.³ The holotype, NHMUK 14695, was listed by Owen as "portions of the corocoid, humerus and ulna, iliac, ischial and pubic bones, a large portion of the shaft of a femur, parts of a tibia and fibula, and several metatarsal bones". Owen assigned the specimen to the pliosaur Polyptychodon.³ In 1850, Gideon Mantell assigned the specimen to Pelorosaurus¹ but Richard Owen placed the fossils in a separate genus, Dinodocus, in 1884. In 1908, Dinodocus was synonymized with Pelorosaurus again, this time by Arthur Smith Woodward.⁴ In 2004, Paul Upchurch and colleagues considered Dinodocus a nomen dubium based on indeterminate sauropod material.²