Gastonia (dinosaur)
| Gastonia | ||||||||||||
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Skeletal reconstruction of Gastonia |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ) | ||||||||||||
| 130.7 to 126.3 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Gastonia | ||||||||||||
| Kirkland , 1998 | ||||||||||||
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Gastonia was a genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the Ankylosauria group . Finds were made in the USA and come from the Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ).
features
Gastonia reached a length of 4 to 6 meters and showed the usual physique of the ankylosaurs. The legs were short and stocky - with the back legs slightly longer than the front legs - and the body was covered in scales of bone for armor.
Rows of larger scales ran along the back, with small scales embedded in between. Along the flanks, Gastonia had a series of spines that were largest on the shoulder. The basin was covered by a shield made of bone plates. The head was characterized by a broad notch on the premaxillary .
Like all ankylosaurs, Gastonia moved quadruped (on all fours) and ate plants.
Discovery and naming
Gastonia was discovered in the Lower Cedar Mountain Formation in the US state of Utah in the 1990s and named in honor of its discoverer, Robert Gaston. At the same point, the predatory dinosaur Utahraptor , another dinosaur and potential predator of Gastonia, was unearthed .
The only species and therefore type species was G. burgei . The finds are dated in the Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ) to an age of 131 to 126 million years.
Systematics
Gastonia has some primeval features and some peculiarities in his physique that make a precise systematic classification difficult. The bony shield over the pelvis is a common feature with Polacanthus , which it is considered to be a possible close relative. Phylogenetic studies by M. Vickaryous et al. place it at the base of the Ankylosauridae , where it is the sister taxon of the other Ankylosauridae with the exception of the even more basal representatives Gargoyleosaurus and Minmi . Sometimes a classification in the " Polacanthidae " is also discussed.
literature
- Matthew K. Vickaryous, Teresa Maryańska and David B. Weishampel: Ankylosauria . In: David Weishampel, Peter Dodson and Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . University of California Press, 2004. ISBN 0-520-24209-2 ; Pp. 363-392.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul: The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs , 2010. ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 228 online
