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Pachyrhizodus fossils were first collected from
Cambridgeshire, England in the 1840s and were very fragmentary, only a partial maxilla (SMB.9097) and were described as a species of
Raphiosaurus in 1842 by
Richard Owen. The type remains of
Pachyrhizodus consisted of a maxilla (BMNH 49014) from the Lower Cretaceous of
Sussex, England and was originally thought to be a mandible that
Louis Agassiz dubbed
Pachyrhizodus in 1850, with Frederick Dixon creating the species name
basalis for the specimen. During the 19th century, several complete and partial skeletons of
Pachyrhizodus were collected from England, many of which belonging to
P. basalis and
P. subulidens. In 1899, Alban Stewart described the mandibles of another species,
P. minimus, from Kansas and it is the most commonly discovered species of
Pachyrhizodus. Since the 19th century, many complete skeletons and species have been described from many regions.
P. caninus specifically has been discovered in the United States, Mexico, and New Zealand. == References ==