Basutodon

Basuto tooth

• Basuto · Toponymic/English · referring to Basutoland (now Lesotho), southern Africa
• don · Greek · tooth

The name combines "Basuto," a reference to Basutoland (the colonial-era name for the territory now known as Lesotho in southern Africa), with the Greek word "odon" (tooth). It was named for the region where its fossil material was discovered. The name effectively means "tooth from Basutoland," reflecting the geographic origin of the specimen.

Named by

Huene

Year named

1932

Period

Late Triassic

Stage

Norian

Found in

Basutoland (Lesotho), southern Africa

Basutodon is generally considered a nomen dubium. It was described by Friedrich von Huene in 1932 based on fragmentary dental material from Basutoland (modern Lesotho). The material is too incomplete to be reliably assigned, and the genus is not considered valid by most modern workers. It has sometimes been tentatively associated with prosauropod dinosaurs, but its exact affinities remain uncertain.