Anchiceratops
| Anchiceratops | ||||||||||||
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Skull of Anchiceratops |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (late Campanium to early Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 76.4 to 69.9 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Anchiceratops | ||||||||||||
| Brown , 1914 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Anchiceratops is a genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the group of Ceratopsidae within the Ceratopsia .
features
Anchiceratops had the typical build of the Ceratopsidae and was a medium-sized representative of this group with a length of around 6 meters. The skull was large and massive, the snout, like all representatives of this group of dinosaurs, pointed and resembling a parrot's beak. It was formed from the rostral bone (in front of the upper jaw) and the predentale (in front of the lower jaw). The teeth consisted of tooth batteries, which are rows of teeth that were replaced by the next tooth when they were worn out. The occlusal surfaces of the teeth were almost vertical.
There was a small horn on the nasal bone , the upper eye horns were significantly longer and curved forward. The neck shield typical of the Ceratopsidae was formed from the parietal and scaled bones . It was relatively long, but in contrast to the neck shield of related species only had small, paired openings. On the edge of the shield there were jagged ossifications called epocciptals .
The trunk was sturdy, the limbs stocky. The front limbs, which ended in five toes, were significantly shorter than the hind legs, which had four hoofed toes. Anchiceratops always moved quadruped (on all fours).
Paleobiology
Bone beds are known from Anchiceratops , in which the remains of numerous animals of different ages have been found. It is conceivable that these animals lived together at least temporarily in larger groups and possibly perished together as a result of a natural disaster (flood or drought).
Horns and neck shields of the Ceratopsidae are often associated with the defense against predators. According to today's point of view, the headdress primarily served to identify the individual species and to interact with conspecifics - either through display, threatening gestures or in fights. It may have been about territorial boundaries or mating privileges.
The Anchiceratops tooth batteries with the vertical occlusal surfaces were designed for a cutting but not a grinding movement. The pointed muzzle is an indication of the ability to selectively eat. The structure of the lower jaw indicates a high bite force. This dinosaur probably lived on tough, fibrous plants.
Discovery and naming
The fossil remains of Anchiceratops were in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Alberta ( Canada found) and in 1914 by Barnum Brown first described . The name is derived from the Greek words anchi (= "near") and keratops (= "horny face"), because the dinosaur was closely related to the already known Ceratopsia in the opinion of the first description. Type species is A. ornatus , a second species named A. longirostris , described in 1929 , is now considered a synonym for A. ornatus . The finds come from the Upper Cretaceous (late Campanian to early Maastrichtian ) and are around 76 to 69 million years old.
Systematics
Anchiceratops is classified within the Ceratopsidae in the Chasmosaurinae , which were characterized by long over-eye horns and a mostly long neck shield. Its sister taxon is likely to be Arrhinoceratops .
literature
- Peter Dodson , Catherine A. Forster, Scott D. Sampson: Ceratopsidae. 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. 494-513.
Web links
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 , pp. 268-269 ( online ).