Albertadromeus
Albertadromeus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Family: | †Thescelosauridae |
Subfamily: | †Orodrominae |
Genus: | †Albertadromeus Brown et al., 2013 |
Type species | |
†Albertadromeus syntarsus Brown et al., 2013
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Albertadromeus is an
Etymology
The composite term Albertadromeus is derived from the name of the Canadian province "Alberta", and the Greek word dromeus (δρομεύς) meaning "runner", a reference to its inferred cursorial nature; thus "runner from Alberta". The specific name, syntarsus is derived from Greek words "syn" (συν) meaning "together" and "tarsus" (ταρσός) meaning "ankle", hence "together-ankle" a reference to the condition where its distal fibula is fused to its distal tibia. This dinosaur was described and named by Caleb Marshall Brown, David C. Evans, Michael J. Ryan & Anthony P. Russell in 2013 and the type species is Albertadromeus syntarsus.
Description
The
Diagnosis
According to Brown et al. (2013) Albertadromeus can be distinguished based on the following characteristics:[1]
- The distal fibula is reduced to a thin sheet of bone that is fused to the anterior surface of tibia for the distal one-third of its length (shared with heterodontosaurids)
- The lateral condyle of proximal tibia is strongly bilobed (shared with Changchunsaurus, Eocursor, Hypsilophodon, Jeholosaurus, Lesothosaurus, Orodromeus, Oryctodromeus)
- A prominent cnemial crest that projects dorsally (and anterolaterally), resulting in a posterior sloped dorsal extremity of the tibia (also present in Gasparinisaura and Micropachycephalosaurus).
Classification
Brown et al. (2013) erected a new taxon Orodrominae to differentiate those species that are more closely related to
Thescelosauridae |
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Paleoecology
The remains of the type specimen of Albertadromeus was recovered in the Canal Creek locality in the Upper
Studies suggest that the paleoenvironment of the Oldman Formation was an ancient coastal plain.[3] This formation has produced the remains of the theropods Saurornitholestes, Daspletosaurus, Troodon, and Dromaeosaurus, the ceratopsids Albertaceratops, Chasmosaurus, Anchiceratops, and Coronosaurus, the hadrosaurids Brachylophosaurus, Gryposaurus, Parasaurolophus, Maiasaura, and Corythosaurus, as well as other dinosaurs that shared that their paleoenvironment with Albertadromeus.
References
- ^ S2CID 129160518.
- ^ Coombs, W. P., Jr. 1978. Theoretical aspects of cursorial adaptations in dinosaurs. The Quarterly Review of Biology 53:393–418.
- ^ Eberth, D.A., and Hamblin, A.P., 1993 , Tectonic, stratigraphic, and sedimentologic significance of a regional discontinuity in the upper Judith River Group (Belly River wedge) of southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and northern Montana: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 30, 174‒200.