Koreaceratops
| Koreaceratops | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hypothetical live reconstruction of Koreaceratops as an amphibious animal |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Albium ) | ||||||||||||
| 112.9 to 100.5 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Koreaceratops | ||||||||||||
| Lee , Ryan & Kobayashi , 2010 |
Koreaceratops is a genus of bird pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) from the group of Ceratopsia .
Discovery and naming
The fossil remains of Koreaceratops were discovered near the city of Hwaseong in South Korea and first described in 2010 . The generic name is derived from Korea and the Greek keratops (= "horn face"), a common part of the name among Ceratopsians. Type species and the only species described is K. hwaseongensis , the specific epithet is derived from the city of Hwaseong. Koreaceratops is the first ceratopsier to be discovered on the Korean peninsula .
features
Koreaceratops was a small representative of the Ceratopsia. So far, a single skeleton is known that consists of an almost complete tail, both ischia and parts of the lower hind legs with foot bones. The tail skeleton obtained consists of 36 vertebrae and is 81 centimeters long. Probably four to five vertebrae are missing. Characteristic for the genus are very high neural arches of the anterior caudal vertebrae, which are five times higher than the corresponding vertebral bodies . Similar elongated neural arcs also occur in Montanoceratops , Udanoceratops , Protoceratops and Bagaceratops , have arisen independently of one another in these only distantly related genera and are possibly an adaptation to an amphibious way of life. In this case, the high neural arches would have served as a support for a high, laterally flattened oar tail. Another hallmark of Koreaceratops is the unique astragalus with two pits , which are separated from each other by a striking ridge.
Systematics and dating
Koreaceratops is counted among the primitive (basal) representatives of the Neoceratopsia within the Ceratopsia . According to the first description, it is more highly developed than Archaeoceratops , but more primitive than Cerasinops and all further developed Ceratopsier. The finds come from the Tando Basin, a rock unit whose sediments could be dated to an age of around 103 million years and thus fall in the Albium , the latest stage of the Lower Cretaceous .
literature
- Yuong-Nam Lee, Michael J. Ryan, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi: The first ceratopsian dinosaur from South Korea. In: Natural Sciences . Vol. 98, No. 1, 2010, pp. 39-49, doi : 10.1007 / s00114-010-0739-y .