Trachodon

rough tooth

• trachys · Greek · rough
• odous (odon) · Greek · tooth

The name combines the Greek words 'trachys' (rough) and 'odous/odon' (tooth), giving the meaning 'rough tooth'. It was chosen because the original fossil material — isolated teeth — had a distinctly rough, wrinkled enamel surface on their grinding faces. This tooth texture was considered characteristic enough to define a new genus when it was first described in the mid-19th century.

Named by

Leidy

Year named

1856

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stages

Campanian – Maastrichtian

Found in

Judith River Formation and related formations, Montana and other western North American localities, USA

Trachodon is a nomen dubium — its validity is doubtful because the type material consists only of isolated teeth, which are not diagnostic enough to reliably distinguish it from other hadrosaur genera. It was historically one of the first hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) genera named from North America and for a time served as a wastebasket taxon into which many hadrosaur teeth and fragments were lumped. It is not currently considered a valid genus by most modern paleontologists.