Scutellosaurus
| Scutellosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Scutellosaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Jurassic ( Hettangium or Sinemurium ) | ||||||||||||
| 201.3 to 190.8 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Scutellosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Colbert , 1981 | ||||||||||||
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Scutellosaurus was a small, primitive genus of the bird pelvic dinosaur that lived in the Lower Jurassic .
features
Scutellosaurus was a small dinosaur that reached a length of 1.2 meters and an estimated weight of 10 kilograms. The hind legs were longer than the front legs, it is assumed that the animal could move both quadruped (on all fours) - for example when foraging - and biped (only on the hind legs). Its body was covered by small horn scales, which were probably attached in rows on the back and on the flanks of the animal. The exact shape and arrangement of the hundreds of scales that each animal carried is unknown. The skull had numerous small, leaf-shaped teeth that were adapted to a vegetable diet.
Discovery and naming
Fossils of scutellosaurus were at Kayenta in the State of Arizona discovered and in 1981 by Edwin H. Colbert first described . Parts of the skull and the postcranial skeleton of at least two individuals were found. The name (scutellum = "small shield") alludes to the animal's bone scales. The only species and thus type species is S. lawleri . The finds are dated in the Lower Jurassic ( Hettangian or Sinemurian ) to an age of 200 to 190 million years.
Systematics
Scutellosaurus is systematically classified within the pelvic dinosaurs at the base of the Thyreophora , the armored dinosaurs, which include stegosauria and ankylosauria . He is considered the most ancient representative of the Thyreophora and the sister taxon of all other representatives of this group.
literature
- 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 .
- David E. Fastovsky , David B. Weishampel: The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2005, ISBN 0-521-81172-4 .
