Panoplosaurus

Panoplosaurus
	Panoplosaurus mirus skull
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Cretaceous (late Campanium )
	76.4 to 72 million years
Locations
	Canada;
Systematics
	Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia)
	Thyreophora
	Eurypoda
	Ankylosaurs (ankylosauria)
	Nodosauridae
	Panoplosaurus
Scientific name
	Panoplosaurus
	Lambe , 1919
Art
	Panoplosaurus mirus Lambe, 1919 ;

Panoplosaurus is a genus of pelvic dinosaur from the group of Ankylosauria . It is counted among the Nodosauridae , where it is one of the youngest representatives. She lived in the Upper Cretaceous in North America.

features

Panoplosaurus reached a length of up to 7 meters, the skull was 40 centimeters long. Like all ankylosauria, it had armor made of bone plates (osteoderms), which covered the top of the head, neck, torso and tail. These plates were arranged in rows, the construction of the plates on the neck is unique: they were oval-elongated. The bony thorns found in many Nodosauridae are not known from Panoplosaurus . It had the usual build of the ankylosauria: the sturdy trunk was supported by four strong limbs, it moved quadruped (on all fours). As with all Nodosauridae, the tail did not end in a bony club.

The skull was narrow and pointed and ended in a horned beak. It was also armored on the top, and the cheek was also covered by a bone plate. It is one of the more highly developed Nodosauridae, which can be recognized, among other things, by the well-developed bony palate and the toothless premaxillary . The teeth were small and leaf-shaped and adapted to a plant-based diet.

Discovery and naming

Panoplosaurus fossil remains were found in the Canadian province of Alberta and first described by the well-known Canadian paleontologist Lawrence Lambe . The name is derived from the Greek παν- / pan- (= "whole"), ὅπλον / -hoplon- (= "shield") and σαῦρος / sauros (= "lizard"). Today, with P. mirus , the type species , only one species is recognized; two other species, P. longiceps and P. rugosidens , are now assigned to the genus Edmontonia . The Panoplosaurus finds are dated in the Upper Cretaceous (late Campanium ) to an age of around 76 to 72 million years.

Systematics

Panoplosaurus is counted within the Ankylosauria in the group of Nodosauridae . Its closest relative is likely to be Edmontonia , together they form an unnamed clade of more highly developed Nodosauridae, which only lived at the end of the Cretaceous and probably disappeared when the dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago.

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.
Lawrence M. Lambe : Description of a new genus and species (Panoplosaurus mirus) of armored dinosaur from the Belly River Beds of Alberta. In: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. Section 3: Biological Sciences. Series 3, Vol. 13, 1918/1919, ZDB -ID 133422-0 , pp. 39-50.

Web links

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

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. 237-238, online .

[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. 237-238, online .