Tylocephale
| Tylocephale | ||||||||||||
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skull |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (late Campanium ) | ||||||||||||
| 76.4 to 72 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tylocephale | ||||||||||||
| Maryańska & Osmólska, 1974 |
Tylocephale is a genus of the bird pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) from the group of the Pachycephalosauria . The only species described is T. gilmorei .
features
From tylocephale only has thus far skull known. As with all pachycephalosaurs, this had a noticeably thickened cranial roof, which was formed from the frontal and parietal bones (frontoparietals). A very narrow, high head of the skull is characteristic of this dinosaur. The function of this thickened skull roof is still controversial, see Function of the skull roof in the Pachycephalosauria . At the back of the head Tylocephale wore a series of smaller bony humps and two larger horn-like structures. The arrangement of these humps is similar to that of Prenocephale , who lived in the same region at the same time and was probably closely related to it.
Compared to other pachycephalosaurs, the teeth were relatively large and primarily adapted to a vegetable diet. Nothing is known about the rest of the body structure, presumably it corresponded to that of the other Pachycephalosauria. Accordingly, Tylocephale moved biped (two-legged) on the hind legs, which were significantly longer than the front legs.
Discovery and naming
The fossil remains of Tylocephale come from the Ömnö-Gobi-Aimag province in Mongolia and were first described in 1974 by Maryańska and Osmólska . The name is derived from the Greek words tyle (= "swell") and kephale (= "head"), a common part of the name of pachycephalosaurs. The type species and the only known species is T. gilmorei . The find is dated in the Upper Cretaceous (late Campanium ) to an age of about 76 to 72 million years.
literature
- Teresa Maryańska , Ralph E. Chapman, David B. Weishampel : Pachycephalosauria. 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. 464-477.
- Robert M. Sullivan: A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). In: Spencer G. Lucas, Robert M. Sullivan (Eds.): Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior (= New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Bulletin. 35, ISSN 1524-4156 ). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque NM 2006, pp. 347–365, digital version (PDF; 4.79 MB) .