Cedar Delta
| Cedar Delta | ||||||||||||
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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 | ||||||||||||
| Cedar Delta | ||||||||||||
| Carpenter , Kirkland, Burge & Bird, 2001 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Cedarpelta is a genus of pelvic dinosaur from the group of Ankylosauria . It was a basal genus from the Lower Cretaceous , whose systematic classification within the Ankylosauria is disputed.
features
From cedarpelta been two are skulls have been found - one of which disintegrated in a state - as well as individual, yet descriptive parts of the postcranial skeleton. The skulls were exceptionally large (two feet in length) and elongated. It had no decorations on the top. The total length is estimated at around 7 meters with a weight of around 5 tons.
Various features in the structure of the skull are characteristic of the genus, including the elongated wing bone and an unpaired element of the parietal bone . The premaxillary (the foremost bone of the upper jaw) had 6 conical teeth, in the later, more highly developed ankylosaurs it was toothless.
Little is known about the rest of the physique. Like all ankylosauria, it was probably a quadruped dinosaur, covered by a shell made of bone plates, that fed on plants.
Discovery and naming
Fossil remains of cedarpelta were in the Lower Cedar lineup in the US state of Utah found and 2001 by Kenneth Carpenter et al. first described . The generic name is derived from the place where it was found (Cedar) and the Greek -πελτα / -pelta (= "shield"). The finds are dated in the Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ) to an age of 130 to 125 million years. This makes Cedarpelta one of the older ankylosaurs.
Systematics
It is true that cedarpelta doubt in the ankylosauria filed within that taxon, the system is controversial. The first describer Carpenter saw in him a close relative of Gobisaurus and Shamosaurus and thus a representative of the Ankylosauridae . In contrast, the phylogenetic study of M. Vickaryous et al. (2004) into the Nodosauridae , where it is listed as the most basic representative and sister taxon of all other Nodosauridae.
literature
- Kenneth Carpenter , James I. Kirkland , Don Burge, John Bird: Disarticulated Skull of a New Primitive Ankylosaurid from the Lower Cretaceous of Eastern Utah. In: Kenneth Carpenter (Ed.): The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN 2001, ISBN 0-253-33964-2 , pp. 211-238.
- 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
- ^ A b Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 231, online ( memento of the original of July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
