Udanoceratops
| Udanoceratops | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Udanoceratops skull reconstruction |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium or early Campanium ) | ||||||||||||
| 86.3 to 80.6 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Udanoceratops | ||||||||||||
| Kurzanov , 1992 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
|
Udanoceratops is a genus of pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia) from the group of Ceratopsia , possibly from the family of Protoceratopsidae .
features
Parts of the skull and limbs are known from Udanoceratops . It was a relatively large dinosaur that reached an estimated length of 3 to 4 meters. Like all Ceratopsia, its skull had the narrow, pointed snout made from rostral bones and predentals . In contrast to other Protoceratopsidae, there was no bony hump on the nasal bone and the neck shield was only very weak. As with all Ceratopsia, the teeth were geared towards a plant-based diet.
Discovery and naming
The fossil remains of Udanoceratops were discovered in the Djadokhta Formation in the Mongolian province of Ömnö-Gobi-Aimag and first described in 1992 . The genus name is derived from the place where it was found Udan-Sayr and the Greek keratops (= "horn face"), a common part of the Ceratopsia name. The finds are dated in the Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium or early Campanium ) to an age of around 86 to 80 million years.
Systematics
The systematic classification of Udanoceratops is controversial because it combines features of different taxa . The elliptical nostrils and the structure of the rostral and upper jaw bones indicate that they belong to the Protoceratopsidae , while the structure of the lower jaw and the teeth indicate that they belong to the Leptoceratopsidae . If it were assigned to the second group, it would be the only Asian representative of this group of dinosaurs, which is otherwise known only from North America (along with the also controversial Bainoceratops ). You & Dodson (2004), however, argue for a close relationship to the Protoceratopsidae, but see the findings as too incomplete for a more detailed analysis.
literature
- You Hailu, Peter Dodson : Basal Ceratopsia. 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. 478-493, digitized version (PDF; 807.25 KB) .
- ↑ as in Brenda Chinnery: Description of Prenoceratops pieganensis gen et sp. nov. (Dinosauria: Neoceratopsia) from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 24, No. 3, 2004, ISSN 0272-4634 , pp. 572-590, doi : 10.1671 / 0272-4634 (2004) 024 [0572: DOPPGE] 2.0.CO; 2 .
