The original name for this genus was
Anogmius Cope, 1871, which was described with the
type species A. contractus. Shortly afterwards, Cope synonymized the genus with
Pachyrhizodus, only to revive it in 1877 for species such as
A. aratus,
A. favirostris, and
A. evolutus. Cope's synonymy of this genus with
Pachyrhizodus was variously accepted or rejected for several decades, until 1940 when the new genus
Bananogmius was proposed to contain all members of
Anogmius aside from the type species, which was assumed to be a synonym of
Pachyrhizodus. Further analysis of Cope's description of the original
Anogmius contractus confirms that it was a
plethodid and not a
pachyrhizodontid, but this specimen was too fragmentary for a proper diagnosis and is now lost, leaving
Bananogmius as the valid name. • †
B. ornatus (Woodward, 1923) -
Cenomanian of England (
Chalk Group), Cenomanian/Turonian of Germany (
Hesseltal Formation) (=
Anogmius ornatus Woodward, 1923) Specimens are known from the Turonian and possibly the
Albian (
Tlayúa Formation) of Mexico, although these have not yet been described. Some species formerly placed in this genus, such as
B. evolutus Cope, 1877 and
B. crieleyi Applegate, 1970 were later reclassified as
Pentanogmius. ==Description==