Pronunciation: tie-NOOR-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Stretched-tail lizard
Author/s: Nopcsa (1928)
Synonyms: See below
First Discovery: Portugal
Discovery Chart Position: #153
Teinurosaurus sauvagei
Despite being represented by just a single, elongate tail vertebra from the Jurassic of Portugal, the "Stretched tail lizard" has led an awfully eventful life after death. It was discovered loitering in the Musée Géologique du Boulonnais at Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1897 by French palaeontologist Henri-Émile Sauvage, who promptly assigned it to Iguanodon prestwichii, which had already been renamed Cumnoria prestwichi (with one less "i") by Seeley in 1888 and reassigned to Camptosaurus prestwichii by Lydekker the following year. Sauvage semi-caught-up in his very last scientific publication at the ripe old age of 72 in 1914, when he catalogued the Jurassic reptiles of Boulonnais in France and called this troublesome vertebra Cumnoria aff. prestwichi, presumably forgetting it was Portuguese! Then Franz Nopcsa identified it as the property of an ostrich-like theropod that he initially referred to as Teinourosaurus in 1924 and officially christened Teinurosaurus (with one less "o") in 1928.
The new name was almost lost when a footnote announcing this news was placed alongside a citation of Saurornithoides by a clumsy printer instead, and a correction in the following year's issue was completely missed by Friedrich von Huene, who (1) thought that Nopcsa had intended to rename Sauvage's vertebra Saurornithoides, (2) knew the latter name was preoccupied because Henry Osborn had already tied it to something else entirely in 1924, and (3) went ahead and renamed the same remains Caudocoelus sauvagei ("Sauvage's hollow tail") in 1932, to avoid any future confusion. Bless him.
The critter drifted off into obscurity, and there it stayed for thirty-odd years until a 1969 review by John Ostrom revealed the priority of Nopcsa’s name—and the inconvenient fact that the flamboyant baron had neglected to attach a species epithet, rendering it invalid. George Olshevsky stepped in with a taxonomic patch job in 1978, uniting Nopcsa's name with von Huene's epithet under the banner of Teinurosaurus sauvagei, but it hardly seems worth the bother since the fossil in question was apparently blown to kingdom come during bombing raids by the Third Reich. However, rumours abound that it survived two world wars and decades of neglect, and is still floating around the Boulogne Natural History Museum like a bad smell.
The new name was almost lost when a footnote announcing this news was placed alongside a citation of Saurornithoides by a clumsy printer instead, and a correction in the following year's issue was completely missed by Friedrich von Huene, who (1) thought that Nopcsa had intended to rename Sauvage's vertebra Saurornithoides, (2) knew the latter name was preoccupied because Henry Osborn had already tied it to something else entirely in 1924, and (3) went ahead and renamed the same remains Caudocoelus sauvagei ("Sauvage's hollow tail") in 1932, to avoid any future confusion. Bless him.
The critter drifted off into obscurity, and there it stayed for thirty-odd years until a 1969 review by John Ostrom revealed the priority of Nopcsa’s name—and the inconvenient fact that the flamboyant baron had neglected to attach a species epithet, rendering it invalid. George Olshevsky stepped in with a taxonomic patch job in 1978, uniting Nopcsa's name with von Huene's epithet under the banner of Teinurosaurus sauvagei, but it hardly seems worth the bother since the fossil in question was apparently blown to kingdom come during bombing raids by the Third Reich. However, rumours abound that it survived two world wars and decades of neglect, and is still floating around the Boulogne Natural History Museum like a bad smell.
Etymology
Teinurosaurus is derived from the Greek "teino" (stretch), "oura" (tail) and "sauros" (lizard). The species epithet, sauvagei, honors French paleontologist Henri-Émile Sauvage.
Caudocelus (von Huene, 1932)Cumnoria aff. prestwichi (Sauvage, 1897)
Teinourosaurus (Nopsca, 1924)
