{{Short description|Extinct genus of dinosaurs}} {{Distinguish|Palaeoscinis|Palaeoniscum}} {{Italic title}} {{Automatic taxobox | name = ''Palaeoscincus'' | fossil_range = Late Cretaceous, {{fossilrange|79|74.9}} | image = Palaeoscincus costatus.jpg | image_caption = ''Palaeoscincus costatus'' holotype tooth | taxon = Palaeoscincus | authority = Leidy, 1856 | type_species = '''''Palaeoscincus costatus''''' | type_species_authority = Leidy, 1856 }}
'''''Palaeoscincus''''' (meaning "ancient lizard" from {{langx|el|παλαιός}} {{Transliteration|el|palaios}} and {{langx|el|σκίγγος}} {{Transliteration|el|skinkos}})<ref>{{cite book |last1=Colbert |first1=Edwin H. (Edwin Harris) |last2=Knight |first2=Charles Robert |title=The dinosaur book: the ruling reptiles and their relatives |date=1951 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |page=152 |url=https://archive.org/details/bookruli00colb/page/152/mode/2up}}</ref> is a dubious genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur based on teeth from the mid-late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana.<ref name ="JL56">{{cite journal | last1 = Leidy | first1 = J. | year = 1856 | title = Notice of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes, discovered by Dr. F. V. Hayden in the Bad Lands of the Judith River, Nebraska Territories | journal = Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia | volume = 8 | pages = 72–73 }}</ref> Like several other dinosaur genera named by Joseph Leidy (''Deinodon'', ''Thespesius'', and ''Trachodon''), it is an historically important genus with a convoluted taxonomy that has been all but abandoned by modern dinosaur paleontologists. Because of its wide use in the early 20th century, it was somewhat well known to the general public, often through illustrations of an animal with the armor of ''Edmontonia'' and the tail club of an ankylosaurid.
==Reassigned species==
Seven species have been referred to this genus over the years, six of which have since been reassigned to other genera: *''Palaeoscincus africanus'', named by Robert Broom in 1910/1912,<ref name="RB12">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1080/00359191009519357 | last1 = Broom | first1 = R. | year = 1912 | title = Observations on some specimens of South African fossil reptiles preserved in the British Museum | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1430381 | journal = Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa | volume = 2 | pages = 19–25 | archive-date = 2020-07-14 | access-date = 2025-07-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200714090223/https://zenodo.org/record/1430381 | url-status = live }}</ref> a partial jaw from the Tithonian-Valanginian-age Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Kirkwood Formation of South Africa, now known as the stegosaurid ''Paranthodon'';<ref name="WC78">{{cite journal | last1 = Coombs | first1 = Jr. | year = 1978 | title = The families of the ornithischian dinosaur order Ankylosauria | url =http://palaeontology.palass-pubs.org/pdf/Vol%2021/Pages%20143-170.pdf | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110824005345/http://palaeontology.palass-pubs.org/pdf/Vol%2021/Pages%20143-170.pdf | url-status =usurped | archive-date =August 24, 2011 | journal = Palaeontology | volume = 21 | issue = 1| pages = 143–170 }}</ref> *''Palaeoscincus asper'', "the rough one", a dubious tooth taxon from the late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada, named by Lawrence Morris Lambe in 1902,<ref name="LL02">{{cite journal | last1 = Lambe | first1 = L.M. | year = 1902 | title = On Vertebrata of the mid-Cretaceous of the Northwest Territory. 2. New genera and species from the Belly River Series (mid-Cretaceous) | journal = Contributions to Canadian Paleontology | volume = 3 | pages = 25–81 }}</ref> based on a single tooth, specimen NMC 1349 now referred to ''Euoplocephalus'';<ref name="WC90">Coombs Jr., W.P. (1990). Teeth and taxonomy in ankylosaurs. In: Carpenter, K., and Currie, P.J. (eds.). ''Dinosaur Systematics: Approaches and Perspectives''. Cambridge University Press:Cambridge, 269-279. {{ISBN|0-521-36672-0}}</ref> *''Palaeoscincus costatus'', "the ribbed one", the type species named by Leidy in 1856, known from a single tooth, specimen ANSP 9263 found by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden near Fort Benton. It was the first ankylosaurian species to be named based on American material;<ref name="WC90"/> it is now considered an ankylosaurian of unknown affinities. *''Palaeoscincus latus'', "the wide one" named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1892, from the late Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming,<ref name="OCM92">{{cite journal | last1 = Marsh | first1 = O.C. | year = 1892 | title = Notes on Mesozoic vertebrate fossils | url = https://zenodo.org/record/2838842| journal = American Journal of Science | volume = 44 | issue = 260| pages = 171–176 | doi = 10.2475/ajs.s3-44.260.171 | bibcode = 1892AmJS...44..171M | s2cid = 130167326 }}</ref> also based on a single tooth, specimen YPM 4810 found in Niobrara County, Wyoming, now believed to have come from a pachycephalosaurid;<ref name="WC90"/> *"P. magoder", a ''nomen nudum'' name from a faunal list by Karl ("Charles") L. Henning,<ref name="WC90"/><ref name="H14">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1007/BF01496485 | last1 = Henning | first1 = C.L. | year = 1914 | title = Ueber neuer Saurierfunde aus Kanada und deren geologische Position | journal = Naturwissenschaften | volume = 2 | issue = 31| pages = 769–776 | bibcode = 1914NW......2..769H | s2cid = 32822243 }}</ref> the result of mistaking the German words ''mag oder'' for a specific name; *''Palaeoscincus rugosidens'', "rough tooth" named by Charles Whitney Gilmore in 1930, the best-known species, a skull and partial skeleton from the late Campanian-age Two Medicine Formation of Montana,<ref name="CWG30">{{cite journal | last1 = Gilmore | first1 = C.W. | year = 1930 | title = On dinosaurian reptiles from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana | journal = Proceedings of the United States National Museum| volume = 77 | issue = 2839| pages = 1–39 | doi=10.5479/si.00963801.77-2839.1}}</ref> now known as ''Edmontonia rugosidens'',<ref name="WC90"/> or a separate genus ''Chassternbergia''. It was this species that was portrayed in most restorations of the genus. *''Palaeoscincus tutus'', a renaming of ''Euoplocephalus tutus'' by Edwin Hennig in 1915.<ref>Hennig, E., 1915, ''Stegosauria: Fossilium Catalogus I, Animalia pars 9'', 16 pp</ref>
Today, the type species ''P. costatus'' and thereby the genus is considered to be an indeterminate ankylosaurian,<ref>Carpenter, K. (2001). Phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosauria. In: Carpenter, K. (ed.). ''The Armored Dinosaurs''. Indiana University Press:Bloomington, 455-483. {{ISBN|0-253-33964-2}}</ref><ref name="VMW04">Vickaryous, M.K., Maryańska, T., and Weishampel, D.B., (2004). Ankylosauria. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). ''The Dinosauria (second edition)''. University of California Press:Berkeley, 363-392. {{ISBN|0-520-24209-2}}</ref> perhaps an indeterminate nodosaurid.<ref name="WC78"/><ref name="WC90"/><ref name="TF00">Ford, T.L. (2000). A review of ankylosaur osteoderms from New Mexico and a preliminary review of ankylosaur armor. In: Lucas, S.G., and Heckert, A.B. (eds.). ''Dinosaurs of New Mexico''. ''New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin'' 17:157-176.</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Dinosaurs}} * Timeline of ankylosaur research
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://dml.cmnh.org/2006Mar/msg00174.html Quick taxonomic summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181441/http://dml.cmnh.org/2006Mar/msg00174.html |date=2016-03-03 }} from the Dinosaur Mailing List
{{Thyreophora|N.}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q871916}}
Category:Nodosauridae Category:Dinosaur genera Category:Campanian dinosaurs Category:Judith River Formation Category:Taxa named by Joseph Leidy Category:Fossil taxa described in 1856 Category:Dinosaurs of the United States Category:Tooth taxa