Colepiocephale
| Colepiocephale | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Crayon (middle Campanium ) | ||||||||||||
| 80.6 to 76.4 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Colepiocephale | ||||||||||||
| Sullivan , 2003 |
Colepiocephale is a little known genus of the bird pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) from the group of the Pachycephalosauria . The only species described is C. lambei ( Sternberg , 1945).
From colepiocephale only parts of are far skull known. The roof of the skull is made up of the fused frontal bone and parietal bone (frontoparietal) and, like all pachycephalosaurs, is noticeably thickened. It is arched, the skull windows of the temporal region are closed, making this dinosaur one of the dome-headed pachycephalosaurs. Characteristic of Colepiocephale is the strong downward curvature of the parietal bone and features in the structure of the scaly bone (squamosum). As with all pachycephalosaurs, the function of the thickened skull roof is controversial (see also the function of the skull roof in pachycephalosauria ). Nothing is known about the other physique of this dinosaur.
The fossil remains of Colepiocephale were found in the Foremost Formation in the Canadian province of Alberta and were first described by Sternberg in 1945 , but still under the name Stegoceras lambei . It was later questioned whether it was a valid species at all, but in 2003 Robert Sullivan not only considered the species to be valid, but also the differences were significant enough to place the finds in a new genus Colepiocephale .
The remains of Colepiocephale are dated in the Upper Cretaceous (Middle Campanium ) to an age of about 80 to 76 million years. This makes this genus one of the oldest dinosaurs that belong to the pachycephalosaurs. Controversial finds of this group of dinosaurs are much older.
literature
- Robert M. Sullivan: A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). In: Spencer G. Lucas, Robert M. Sullivan (Eds.): Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior (= New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Bulletin. 35, ISSN 1524-4156 ). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque NM 2006, pp. 347–365, digital version (PDF; 4.79 MB) .