{{Short description|Dubious hadrosaurid dinosaur genus from Late Cretaceous Canada}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = Late Cretaceous, {{fossilrange|Campanian}} | image = Trachodon altidens GSC 1092.png | image_caption = Holotype maxilla CMN 1092 | taxon = Didanodon | authority = Osborn, 1902<ref name="osborn1902"/> | type_species = {{extinct}}'''''Didanodon altidens''''' | type_species_authority = (Lambe, 1902)<ref name="lambe1902"/> | synonyms = * ''Trachodon (Pteropelyx) altidens''<br />{{small|Lambe, 1902}} * ''Procheneosaurus altidens''<br />{{small|(Lambe, 1902) Lull & Wright, 1942}} }}
'''''Didanodon''''' (meaning "beautiful-sided tooth")<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dinosauria.com/dml/dmlf.htm |title=The DOL Dinosaur Omnipedia |website=www.dinosauria.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051231235112/http://www.dinosauria.com/dml/dmlf.htm |archive-date=31 December 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref> is a dubious genus of hadrosaurid from the Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta.
==History and naming== It was named in 1902 by Canadian palaeontologist Lawrence M. Lambe for a left {{dinogloss|maxilla}} with teeth as the new species ''T. altidens'', within the genus ''Trachodon'' and subgenus ''Pteropelyx''. Lambe distinguished ''T. altidens'' by its distinctly narrow tooth crowns, with the name as a reference to their height relative to breadth, and the distance they project above the margin of the bone. Lambe compared the teeth to those of the species ''Trachodon mirabilis'', ''Trachodon (Pteropelyx) selwyni'', ''Trachodon (Pteropelyx) marginatus'', and ''Pteropelyx grallipes''.<ref name="lambe1902"/> In the same publication, American palaeontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn summarized the fauna of the mid-Cretaceous across all of North America, and even provided the possible new genus name ''Didanodon'' for the species as ''T. (Didanodon) altidens''.<ref name="osborn1902"/>
''Didanodon altidens'' was followed as a genus of hadrosaurid by Canadian palaeontologist Loris S. Russell in 1930, who suggested that it may be the same genus as the taxon "Procheneosaurus" also from the DPF in Alberta.<ref name="russell1930"/> A similar belief was followed by American palaeontologists Richard Swann Lull and Nelda E. Wright in 1942, although they treated ''Procheneosaurus'' as the valid genus and referred "T." ''altidens'' to it as ''Procheneosaurus altidens''. Lull and Wright noted particular similarities to the teeth of ''Tetragonosaurus cranibrevis'' (which they considered more properly called ''Procheneosaurus cranibrevis'') as justification for the referral to ''Procheneosaurus''.<ref name="lull1942"/>
''Trachodon altidens'' is now recognized as an undiagnostic taxon of hadrosaurid, along with the other species of ''Trachodon'' and ''Pteropelyx'', though ''Didanodon'' has at the same time been listed as a synonym of ''Lambeosaurus'' or an invalid name.<ref name="horner2004"/><ref name="lund2006"/>
==References== <references>
<ref name="lambe1902">{{cite journal|last=Lambe|first=L.M.|author-link=Lawrence Lambe|year=1902|title=New genera and species from the Belly River Series (Mid-Cretaceous)|journal=Geological Survey of Canada. Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology. Part II. On Vertebrata of the Mid-Cretaceous of the North West Territory|volume=3|issue=2|pages=25–81}}</ref> <ref name="osborn1902">{{cite journal|last=Osborn|first=H.F.|author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborn|year=1902|title=Distinctive characters of the Mid-Cretaceous fauna|journal=Geological Survey of Canada. Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology. Part II. On Vertebrata of the Mid-Cretaceous of the North West Territory|volume=3|issue=2|pages=5–21}}</ref> <ref name="russell1930">{{cite journal|last=Russell|first=L.S.|year=1930|title=Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Faunas of North America|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=69|issue=1|pages=133–159}}</ref> <ref name="lull1942">{{cite journal|last1=Lull|first1=R.S.|authorlink1=Richard Swann Lull|last2=Wright|first2=N.E.|year=1942|title=Hadrosaurian Dinosaurs of North America|journal=Geological Society of America Special Papers|volume=40|pages=1–272|doi=10.1130/SPE40-p1}}</ref> <ref name="horner2004">{{cite book|last1=Horner|first1=J.R.|author-link1=Jack Horner (paleontologist)|last2=Weishampel|first2=D.B.|author-link2=David B. Weishampel|last3=Forster|first3=C.A.|year=2004|chapter=Hadrosauridae|editor-last=Weishampel|editor-first=D.B.|editor2-last=Dodson|editor2-first=P.|editor3-last=Osmólska|editor3-first=H|title=The Dinosauria|edition=2nd|publisher=University of California Press|pages=438–463|isbn=978-0-520-24209-8}}</ref> <ref name="lund2006">{{cite journal|last1=Lund|first1=E.K.|last2=Gates|first2=T.A.|year=2006|title=A historical and biogeographical examination of hadrosaurian dinosaurs|journal=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin|volume=35|pages=263–276}}</ref>
</references>
{{Ornithopoda|D.}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q5478013}}
Category:Hadrosauridae Category:Dinosaur genera Category:Campanian dinosaurs Category:Dinosaur Park Formation Category:Taxa named by Henry Fairfield Osborn Category:Fossil taxa described in 1902 Category:Dinosaurs of Canada