Yaverlandia
| Yaverlandia | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ) | ||||||||||||
| 130.7 to 126.3 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Yaverlandia | ||||||||||||
| Galton , 1971 |
Yaverlandia is a genus of bird pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia)known only from sparse finds, possibly from the group of Pachycephalosauria . The only species described is Y. bitholus .
From yaverlandia only the part of the skull was found so far. The frontal bone has the usual thickening of the pachycephalosaurs, but no bulge, so that it could have belonged to the flat-headed representatives. Otherwise nothing is known about the physique of this dinosaur. Other researchers, such as Robert Sullivan, question whether Yaverlandia belongs to the pachycephalosaurs, citing ongoing research that it could be a theropod .
The fossil remains of Yaverlandia were found on the English Isle of Wight and first described in 1971. The name is derived from the village of Yaverland , the only species is Y. bitholus . The finds are dated in the Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium ) to an age of approx. 131 to 126 million years.
With Stenopelix (also from the Lower Cretaceous) and Ferganocephale (from the Middle Jurassic), Yaverlandia is one of the older, but all controversial, finds of pachycephalosaurs. This group is otherwise only known from the Upper Cretaceous in East Asia and North America.
literature
- Peter M. Galton A primitive dome-headed dinosaur (Ornithischia; Pachycephalosauridae) from the Lower Cretaceous of England, and the function of the dome in pachycephalosaurids. In: Journal of Paleontology. Vol. 45, No. 1, 1971, ISSN 0022-3360 , pp. 40-47.
- 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) .