Dino card No. 1349 of 2,027

Palatodonta

Say it: PAL-ah-toe-DON-tah

Name means: “palate tooth, named for the teeth on its palate bone”1

Ate: MeatSea reptilesMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Palatodonta was a small marine reptile that lived in the sea about 245 million years ago. It had a row of pointed teeth on the roof of its mouth, which it probably used to sift through soft mud for tiny prey. It was an early cousin of the placodonts, reptiles with flat crushing teeth for eating shellfish.1 2

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

247 to 241 million years ago4

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Winterswijk, Gelderland province, Netherlands1 3

Food

Meat1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Palatodonta had a single row of at least 10 narrow, pointed teeth on its palate, which is different from the broad, flat crushing teeth of later placodonts.1

Its front teeth were blunt, peg-like, and slightly forward-pointing, similar to those of the placodont Placodus, which used them to pick up hard-shelled prey.1

The only known fossil is a juvenile skull, so scientists think it was a young animal when it died.1

Palatodonta lived in the early Middle Triassic, about 247 to 241 million years ago, in a shallow sea that covered part of Europe.3 1

Its skull had an L-shaped cheek bone, a feature that links it to early placodonts.1

Palatodonta is the most basal known placodontiform, meaning it branched off before true placodonts evolved their specialized crushing teeth.1

AI-made picture of Palatodonta — An AI-made picture of how Palatodonta might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Palatodonta

?How big was Palatodonta?

The only known fossil is a juvenile skull about 2 centimetres (0.8 inches) long. Adults might have been slightly larger, but no adult fossils have been found.1

?What did Palatodonta eat?

It used its blunt, peg-like front teeth to sift through soft mud on the seafloor for small, soft prey like worms or tiny crustaceans.1

?Where did Palatodonta live?

It lived in a shallow sea that covered what is now the Netherlands and other parts of Europe during the early Middle Triassic.2 1

?When did Palatodonta live?

It lived during the early Middle Triassic, about 247 to 241 million years ago.4 2

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people might think Palatodonta was a dinosaur because it lived in the Mesozoic era.

Truth: Palatodonta was a marine reptile, specifically a sauropterygian, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs were land reptiles, and Palatodonta lived in the sea.2 1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Palatodonta
Named by: Neenan et al. 20134
Group: Sea reptiles
Family / clade: Placodontiformes4
Classification: Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 247 to 241 million years ()4
Rock formations: Vossenveld4
Countries: Netherlands4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Palatodonta was named in 2013 by Neenan and colleagues, based on a fossil skull found by Remco Bleeker in Winterswijk, the Netherlands. The species name bleekeri honors its discoverer.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Palatodonta is related to other marine reptiles, and whether it truly represents the European origin of placodonts or if they originated elsewhere.1

Where the facts come from

European origin of placodont marine reptiles and the evolution of crushing dentition in Placodontia | Nature Communications (nature.com)
Palatodonta (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Palatodonta in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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