Hoplitosaurus
| Hoplitosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Spiked skin-bone plate of the tail of Hoplitosaurus marshi |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ) | ||||||||||||
| 130.7 to 126.3 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hoplitosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Lucas , 1902 | ||||||||||||
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Hoplitosaurus is a little-known genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the ankylosauria group .
features
So far only a few ribs , vertebrae , parts of the limbs and some bone plates including long spines have been found of Hoplitosaurus . His physique must have corresponded to that of the other ankylosaurs: the trunk was broad and stocky and the limbs were short and strong. The body was covered by armor made of bone plates, and the bony spines - possibly on the flanks of the animals - were also present. The skull is not known, like all ankylosaurs, this dinosaur is believed to have lived on plants.
Discovery and naming
The scanty fossil remains of Hoplitosaurus were discovered in the US state of South Dakota at the end of the 19th century and first described in 1901. The name is derived from the hoplites , a type of Greek soldier. The only species and thus type species is H. marshi . The finds are dated to the Lower Cretaceous Period ( Barremium ) at an age of 131 to 126 million years.
Systematics
The assumption was made early on that this dinosaur was closely related to Polacanthus , who lived in Europe at the same time, and sometimes the two genera were even considered synonymous. The similarities are mainly in the construction of the bone plates and spines, although Hoplitosaurus does not have the coalesced, shield-like armor over the basin that is typical of Polacanthus .
Accordingly, this dinosaur is often classified in the Polacanthidae or Polacanthinae group , which is, however, controversial. Other systematics see the remains of Hoplitosaurus as too sparse for an exact classification and list it as "Ankylosauria incertae sedis ".
literature
- Matthew K. Vickaryous, Teresa Maryańska , David B. Weishampel : Ankylosauria. In: David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 363-392.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 229, online ( memento of the original of July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
