Bothriospondylus

pitted vertebra

• bothrios · Greek · pitted / excavated
• spondylos · Greek · vertebra

The name combines the Greek words 'bothrios' (pitted or excavated) and 'spondylos' (vertebra), referring to the deeply hollowed or excavated centra of the vertebrae that characterise the material on which the genus was based. This feature — large pleurocoelous (hollow-sided) vertebrae — is common among sauropod dinosaurs but was particularly striking in the specimens Owen examined. The name was chosen to draw attention to this distinctive anatomical feature of the backbone.

Named by

Owen

Year named

1875

Period

Middle to Late Jurassic

Stages

Bathonian – Tithonian

Found in

England, UK; also referred material from France and Madagascar

Bothriospondylus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It is a sauropod dinosaur (likely a neosauropod), but the type material — isolated vertebrae from the Middle Jurassic of England — is too fragmentary and non-diagnostic to confidently refer to a well-defined genus. Numerous species have been assigned to it over the years from England, France, and Madagascar, but most have since been reassigned to other genera or left unresolved. The Madagascan material in particular has been re-examined and assigned elsewhere. Confidence is medium due to the confused taxonomic history and fragmentary type material.