Poekilopleuron

Poekilopleuron (meaning "varied ribs") is a megalosauroid  dinosaur. The genus has been used under many different spelling variants, although only one, Poekilopleuron, is valid. The type species is P. bucklandii (see also Megalosaurus), named after William Buckland, and many junior synonyms of it have also been erected. Few material is currently known, as the holotype was destroyed in World War II, although many casts of the material still exist.

 Discovery and naming 
Poekilopleuron is a genus of theropod with a long and complex history. The genus was first named and described by Jacques-Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps in a report published in 1836, based on holotype material that is now destroyed. In 1837, Eudes-Deslongchamps published a more detailed account of this discovery in a monographEudes-Deslongchamps J.-A. (1837) Mémoire sur le Poekilopleuron bucklandii, grand saurien fossile, intermédiaire entre les crocodiles et les lézards. A. Hardel, Caen, 114 p., 8 pl. which was also inserted next year in volume 6 of the "Mémoires de la Société Linnéenne Normandie".

The holotype, which was housed in Musée de la Faculté des Sciences de Caen and destroyed during World War II, included gastralia, phalanges, a left forelimb, caudal vertebrae, chevrons, ribs and a hindlimb. Of all the material, few is still preserved, although the gastralia, phalanges and forelimb were casted.

In the same 1836 publication, Eudes-Deslongchamps also named the type species of Poekilopleuron, P. bucklandii. Eudes-Deslongchapms noted similarities with some material of Megalosaurus bucklandii and Poekilopleuron, and chose the species name bucklandii for Poekilopleuron, so that it the two genera were synonymized, only the genus name would be suppressed. The generic name is derived from Greek ποίκιλος, poikilos, "varied", and πλευρών, pleuron, "rib", a reference to the three types of rib present. The specific name, honouring William Buckland, was deliberately identical to that of Megalosaurus bucklandii.

 References 

Category:Tetanurans
Category:Theropods