Talarurus
| Talarurus | ||||||||||||
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Skeletal reconstruction of Talarurus plicatospineus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanium to Turonium ) | ||||||||||||
| 100.5 to 89.7 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Talarurus | ||||||||||||
| Maleev , 1952 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Talarurus is a genus of pelvic dinosaur from the group of Ankylosauria . He livedin Asiain the early Upper Cretaceous .
features
The length of Talarurus is estimated to be 4 to 6 meters, its skull was around 24 centimeters long. He had the typical build of the ankylosauria with the short, stocky limbs and the armor consisting of bone plates. This consisted of plates arranged in a band, in addition this dinosaur also had conical thorns arranged in rows. At the rear end of the head he had two small, on the scale leg seated (squamosal) horns. The front feet ended in five and the hind feet in four toes (in contrast, in later ankylosaurs there were usually only three). As with all Ankylosauridae , the tail ended in a bony club that served as a defense against the enemy. This club was slimmer in Talarurus than in other ankylosaurs.
As with all Ankylosauridae, the skull was broad and massive and equipped with a toothless horned beak at the tip of the snout. The small, leaf-shaped teeth were designed for a plant-based diet.
Discovery and naming
Fossil finds from Talarurus were discovered during a Soviet - Mongolian expedition in Mongolia in the 1950s and were first described by the Russian paleontologist Maleev . The name Talarurus (Greek for "wicker basket tail") alludes to the interwoven tail vertebrae that stabilized the tail lobe. The only species and thus type species is Talarurus plicatospineus .
The finds are dated to the early Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanian to Turonian ) to an age of 100 to 89 million years.
Systematics
Talarurus is a comparatively old and in some respects primeval ankylosaur. It is classified in an Asian clade within the Ankylosauridae , to which also u. a. Saichania and Pinacosaurus are counted.
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.
- David E. Fastovsky , David B. Weishampel: The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-81172-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Dougal Dixon : The World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Lorenz, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7548-1730-7 , p. 384.