Nedoceratops
| Nedoceratops | ||||||||||||
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The skull of Nedoceratops , the only known fossil. |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (Upper Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 69.9 to 66 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nedoceratops | ||||||||||||
| Mateus , 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Nedoceratops (formerly Diceratops ) is a controversial genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the group of Ceratopsidae within the Ceratopsia .
features
From Nedoceratops only a poorly-preserved is the skull known which that of Triceratops similar. It is controversial whether it is actually a separate genus. The nasal horn is reduced to a round stump, which means that the long over-eye horns remain as the eponymous "two horns". Like all Ceratopsidae, it had a neck shield made up of parietal and scaly bones , which, however, in contrast to Triceratops, had openings. For some researchers, these openings establish the status as an independent genus.
Nothing is known about the rest of the body structure, presumably it resembled that of the other Ceratopsidae. As a result, he should have had a strong trunk with stocky legs and moved quadruped (on all fours). Like all Ceratopsia, it was herbivorous.
Discovery and naming
The fossil skull of Nedoceratops was found in the Lance Formation in the US state of Wyoming . John Bell Hatcher researched the find, after his untimely death Richard Swann Lull published the first description in 1905 under the name Diceratops ("two-horned face"). The type species and the only known species is D. hatcheri . Since the name Diceratops was already given for a hymenoptera genus, Octávio Mateus and AS Ukrainsky proposed the name Diceratus in 2008 . Since the name Nedoceratops was published first, it has priority over Diceratus according to the rules of the International Rules for Zoological Nomenclature .
The find is dated in the Upper Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian ) to an age of 69 to 66 million years.
Systematics
Nedoceratops is classified within the Ceratopsidae in the Chasmosaurinae , which were characterized by large over-eye horns and a long neck shield. He is counted to the Triceratops - Torosaurus clade and is, according to cladistic studies, the closest related to Torosaurus .
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.
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 , online .
- ↑ Octávio Mateus: Two ornithischian dinosaurs renamed: Microceratops Bohlin 1953 and Diceratops Lull 1905. In: Journal of Paleontology. Vol. 82, No. 2, 2008, ISSN 0022-3360 , p. 423, doi : 10.1666 / 07-069.1 .
- ↑ AS Ukrainsky: A new replacement name for Diceratops Lull, 1905 (Reptilia: Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae). In: Zoosystematica Rossica. Vol. 16, No. 2, 2007, ISSN 0320-9180 , p. 292, digital version (PDF; 31.61 kB) .
- ^ Andrew A. Farke: Anatomy and Taxonomic Status of the Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid Nedoceratops hatcheri from the Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming, USA In: PLoS ONE . Vol. 6, No. 1, 2011, e16196, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0016196 .
