Altirhinus

Altirhinus
Skull of Altirhinus kurzanovi
Temporal occurrence
Lower Cretaceous ( Aptium to Albium )
126.3 to 100.5 million years
Locations
Mongolia
Systematics
Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) Ornithopoda Euornithopoda Iguanodontia Iguanodontoidea Altirhinus
Scientific name
Altirhinus
Norman , 1998

Altirhinus was a genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the ornithopoda group that lived in the Lower Cretaceous in East Asia.

features

Altirhinus was a relative of Iguanodon and had a similar physique, although many parts of the body are unknown. The skull was 76 centimeters long, the total length of the animal was around 8 meters. The front limbs were shorter than the hind limbs, and Altirhinus was believed to be able to move on both two and four legs. The skull was characterized by a high nasal bone , the snout was comparatively wide and shaped similar to that of the hadrosaurs . The teeth were adapted to a vegetable diet. The thumb was like Iguanodon transformed into a mandrel for the fifth finger was to some extent opponierbar .

Discovery and naming

From Altirhinus multiple skull and parts of the postcranial skeleton in the Mongolian region dornogovi province found and in 1998 first described . The name is derived from Latin altus (= "high") and Greek rhinos (= "nose") and alludes to the enlarged nasal region. The only known species and thus type species is A. kurzanovi . The finds are dated to the late Lower Cretaceous ( Aptian or Albian ) to an age of 126 to 100 million years.

literature

• 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 .

Web links

Commons : Altirhinus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 291, online .