"Newtonsaurus" is the informal name

Nomen nudum

The phrase nomen nudum is a Latin term, meaning "naked name", used in taxonomy...

 given to an as yet undescribed genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 from the Late Triassic

Late Triassic

The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic. In the past it was sometimes called the Keuper, after a German lithostratigraphic group that has a roughly corresponding age...

. It was probably a ceratosaur, which lived in what is now the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The type species is "N. cambrensis", originally coined as Zanclodon cambrensis

Zanclodon

Zanclodon is an extinct genus of archosaurian reptile endemic to what would have been Europe during the Middle Triassic-Late Triassic epochs ....

, although it has usually been referred to Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Europe...

, due to the taxonomic difficulties associated with Zanclodon. It is based on a mold of a dentary from Rhaetian

Rhaetian

The Rhaetian is in geochronology the latest age of the Triassic period or in chronostratigraphy the uppermost stage of the Triassic system. It lasted from 203.6 ± 1.5 to 199.6 ± 0.6 million years ago...

-age beds in Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 (hence the species name), and is one of the relatively few dinosaurs known from the time near the Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

-Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

boundary.

Paleontologists have avoided using the name since its appearance in 1999 in private publications, although "Zanclodon" cambrensis or Megalosaurus cambrensis have both been used for this taxon.

External links

• First wide dissemination, via the Dinosaur Mailing List
• One of the authors clarifies the name, via the Dinosaur Mailing List