Cardiodon

heart tooth

• kardia · Greek · heart
• odon · Greek · tooth

Cardiodon means "heart tooth" from Greek. Richard Owen chose it because the tooth crown on which the genus was based has a heart-shaped outline in cross-section. The name refers to this tooth feature.

Named by

Owen

Year named

1841

Period

Middle Jurassic

Stage

Bathonian

Found in

England, United Kingdom

Known only from fragmentary tooth material, a sauropod. It is generally treated as a nomen dubium because the teeth are not diagnostic. Owen named it in the same period as Cetiosaurus, and he did not initially recognise it as a dinosaur.