Auroraceratops

Auroraceratops
Re-enacted find situation of Auroraceratops
Temporal occurrence
Lower Cretaceous ( Aptium )
126.3 to 112.9 million years
Locations
China
Systematics
Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) Cerapoda Marginocephalia Ceratopsia Neoceratopsia Auroraceratops
Scientific name
Auroraceratops
You , Li , Ji , Lamanna & Dodson , 2005
Art
A. rugosus You et al., 2005

Auroraceratops is a genus of pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia) from the group of Ceratopsia , within which it iscountedamong the primitive representatives of Neoceratopsia .

features

For a long time only the skull of Auroraceratops was known, which was around 20 centimeters long. Compared to other Neoceratopsia, its snout was short and wide. Characteristic features included the greatly broadened nasal bones , a mushroom-shaped enlargement at the rear end of the tear bone and roughened areas around the eye, on the cheek and on the lower jaw. There were some greatly enlarged teeth on the intermaxillary bone, which is a primitive feature. As with all Ceratopsia, the teeth were adapted to a vegetable diet. However, many more auroraceratops bones of more than 80 specimens were later found and auroraceratops is one of the few early horned dinosaurs that researchers know almost the entire skeleton of. Auroraceratops was about 1.25 meters long, about 45 cm high and weighed about 15 kg. The curved femur and narrow, curved claws on the forefeet show that Auroraceratops, like other basal Neoceratopsia, mainly moved with their hind legs ( biped ).

Discovery and naming

The first fossil remains of Auroraceratops were discovered in the Xinminbao Group in the Chinese province of Gansu and first described in 2005 . Another basal Neoceratopsier, Archaeoceratops, was found in the same formation a few years earlier . The generic name is derived from the Latin aurora (= "dawn") and the Greek keratops (= "horny face"), a common part of the name in Ceratopsia. The "Dawn" is on the one hand an indication of the old age and the primeval character of this dinosaur, on the other hand it honors Dawn Dodson ( dawn = English for "Dawn"), the wife of one of the first descriptors, Peter Dodson. The type and only known species is A. rugosus . The finds are dated to the late Lower Cretaceous ( Aptian ), to an age of 126 to 113 million years. This makes Auroraceratops one of the oldest known representatives of Neoceratopsia.

literature

• Hailu You, Daqing Li, Qiang Ji, Matthew C. Lamanna, Peter Dodson : On a new genus of basal Neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Gansu Province, China. In: Acta Geologica Sinica. English edition. Vol. 79, No. 5, 2005, ISSN  1000-9515 , pp. 593-597, digital version (PDF; 274.5 kB) .

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. 252, online ( memento of the original dated 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. . 
2. ↑ Morschhauser, EM, H. You, D. Li, and P. Dodson. 2019. Postcranial morphology of the basal neoceratopsian (Ornithischia: Ceratopsia) Auroraceratops rugosus from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian – Albian) of northwestern Gansu Province, China. Pp. 75-116 in Hailu You, Peter Dodson, and Eric Morschhauser (eds.), Auroraceratops rugosus (Ornithischia, Ceratopsia) from the Early Cretaceous of northwestern Gansu Province, China. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 18. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38 (Supplement). DOI: 10.1080 / 02724634.2017.1524383
3. ↑ You, H.-L., EM Morschhauser, D.-Q. Li, and P. Dodson. 2019. Introducing the Mazongshan Dinosaur Fauna. Pp. 1-11 in Hailu You, Peter Dodson, and Eric Morschhauser (eds.), Auroraceratops rugosus (Ornithischia, Ceratopsia) from the Early Cretaceous of northwestern Gansu Province, China. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 18. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38. DOI: 10.1080 / 02724634.2017.1396995