Eotriceratops
| Eotriceratops | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of Eotriceratops |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 72 to 69.9 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Eotriceratops | ||||||||||||
| Wu , Brinkman , Eberth & Braman , 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Eotriceratops is a genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the group of Ceratopsidae within the Ceratopsia .
From eotriceratops only partially preserved is the skull known. This was very large, the length of the animal is estimated at 8.5 meters. There was a nasal horn on the nasal bone , the upper eye horns were long and slightly curved forward. The cheek region was expansive and provided with conical cheekbones (Epijugale). Like all Ceratopsidae, this dinosaur had a neck shield, the edge of which was provided with spindle-shaped ossifications. Like all Ceratopsidae, Eotriceratops probably fed on plants and moved quadruped .
The fossil remains of this dinosaur were found in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Alberta ( Canada ) and first described in 2007 . The generic name is derived from the Greek words eos (= "dawn") and triceratops (= "three-horned face") and alludes to the fact that the dinosaur may be an ancestor of Triceratops . The type and only known species is Eotriceratops xerinsularis . The finds are dated in the Upper Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian ) to an age of 72 to 69 million years.
Eotriceratops is systematically classified within the Ceratopsidae in the Chasmosaurinae , which were characterized by large super-eye horns and a long neck shield. This dinosaur is counted in the Triceratops - Torosaurus clade. However, it is older than its two relatives, who are only known from the late Maastrichtian, and therefore forms an important paleontological link to the later representatives of the Chasmosaurinae.
literature
- Xiao-chun Wu, Donald B. Brinkman, David A. Eberth, Dennis R. Braman: A new ceratopsid dinosaur (Ornithischia) from the uppermost Horseshoe Canyon Formation (upper Maastrichtian), Alberta, Canada. In: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. Vol. 44, No. 9, 2007, ISSN 0008-4077 , pp. 1243-1265, doi : 10.1139 / e07-011 (currently not available) .
Web links
- Thomas R. Holtz: Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages (2008), list of genres (PDF file; 184 kB)
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 , p. 265, online .