Minmi

Minmi
	Model of Minmi in the National Dinosaur Museum in Canberra
Temporal occurrence
	Lower Cretaceous ( Aptium to Albium )
	126.3 to 100.5 million years
Locations
	Australia ( Queensland );
Systematics
	Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia)
	Thyreophora
	Eurypoda
	Ankylosaurs (ankylosauria)
	Ankylosauridae
	Minmi
Scientific name
	Minmi
	Molnar , 1980
species
	Minmi paravertebra Molnar, 1980 ; Minmi spec. (unnamed) Molnar, 1996 ;

Minmi was a genus of pelvic dinosaurs from the Ankylosauria group . Finds of the Minmi come from the Lower Cretaceous Period in Australia .

features

Minmi reached a length of about 3 meters, the skull was 29 centimeters long. Like all ankylosaurs, it moved quadruped (on all fours) and compared to other ankylosaurs had long limbs - the rear ones being longer than the front ones. Like all ankylosaurs, it was armored with horn scales; these were relatively small and ran in rows. The belly was also covered by small plates of bone, and a double row of sharp-edged bone scales ran along the top of the tail. In contrast to other ankylosaurs, the head was not armored except for two cusps protruding from the scaled bone. Unique among the ankylosaurs are the horizontal bones that run alongside the vertebrae . He had small teeth that were adapted to a vegetable diet.

Discovery and naming

Fossil remains of Minmi were in Queensland ( Australia discovered) and in 1980 by Ralph Molnar first described . It was the first ankylosaur from Australia - even the entire southern hemisphere. The name is derived from Minmi Crossing near Roma in Queensland. Type species is Minmi paravertebra ; In the 1990s, a second, previously unnamed species of Molnar was discovered. The finds are dated to the Lower Cretaceous ( Aptian or Albian ), 126 to 100 million years ago.

Systematics

Minmi is a primitive representative of the ankylosauria , the exact systematic classification of which is difficult and controversial. Originally counted to the Nodosauridae , it is classified today to the Ankylosauridae , where it is the sister species of the other Ankylosauridae with the exception of the even more primitive Gargoyleosaurus .

literature

Matthew K. Vickaryous, Teresa Maryańska , David B. Weishampel : Ankylosauria. 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. 363-392.

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 , pp. 227-228, online .

Web links

Commons : Minmi - collection of images, videos and audio files

[paul_10-1] Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , pp. 227-228, online .