Dinodocus

terrible beam

• deinos · Greek · terrible / fearfully great
• dokos · Greek · beam / bar

The name combines the Greek words 'deinos' (terrible or fearfully great) and 'dokos' (a beam or bar). It was chosen to reflect the massive, beam-like limb bones of the animal. The name is broadly in the same tradition as other 19th-century sauropod names that emphasised the enormous size of the skeletal elements.

Named by

Owen

Year named

1884

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Barremian

Found in

Wealden, England, UK

Dinodocus mackesoni was named by Richard Owen in 1884 on the basis of fragmentary limb bone material from the Wealden beds of Kent, England. The material is too incomplete to be confidently assigned to any known sauropod genus, and the name is now widely regarded as a nomen dubium. It is a sauropod dinosaur, likely a brachiosaurid or related titanosauriform.