Skeletal Diagram by Skye McDavid, used with permission.
Meaning
Jute reptile
The Compton Thunderer
Length
4 metres (13 feet)
Classification
Ornithopoda Marsh, 1881
Iguanodontia Baur, 1891
Hadrosauriformes Sereno, 1997
Comptonatus chasei Lockwood, Martill and Maidment 2024
Locations
The only known specimen of Comptonatus was found in a plant debris bed on National Trust property to the west of the fault in Compton Bay
Comptonatus was a herbivorous dinosaur, feeding on the plants, such as conifers, cycads and tree-ferns that are found in the Wessex Formation.
There are large spikes on the thumbs, which may have been used for defense, but there is the possibility they were used for intraspecies fighting, with the spikes being used on competitors for mates.
Comptonatus chasei differs from all other iguanodontians by possessing the following autapomorphies and unique combination of characters:
- parietal ‘tubercle’ and step, dorsolateral to ascending process of supraoccipital; the exoccipital bar/bridge overhangs the exoccipital pillar
- the basioccipital with thin median ridge in ventral sulcus
- dentary is straight across the entire ventral margin in lateral view
- dentary and maxillary crowns both have grooved primary ridges
- tall neural spines on proximal caudal vertebrae (neural spine > three times height of centrum and approx. four times the height in Cd1)
- excluding Cd1 and Cd2, both proximal and middle caudal vertebrae have a deep ventral sulcus
- supraglenoid fossa of the scapula absent
- coracoid boss on dorsolateral medial surface
- coracoid has medial cavity buttressed by cornuate ridge
- prepubic blade markedly dorsoventrally expanded with (reconstructed) ratio of maximum to minimum depth of the prepubic blade c. 2.5
- boss on medial surface of tibia near dorsal margin
Comptonatus – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LOCKWOOD, J. A. F, MARTILL, D. M. and MAIDMENT, S. C. R. 2024. Comptonatus chasei, a new iguanodontian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, southern England Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2024.2346573