Minmi paravertebra
Minmi | |
---|---|
Left foot of the holotype | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Thyreophora |
Clade: | † Eurypoda
|
Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
Genus: | †Minmi Molnar, 1980 |
Species: | †M. paravertebra
|
Binomial name | |
†Minmi paravertebra Molnar, 1980
|
Minmi is a
Discovery and species
In 1964, Dr Alan Bartholomai, a collaborator of the Queensland Museum, discovered a chalkstone nodule containing an ankylosaurian skeleton in Queensland near Minmi Crossing, along the Injun Road, one kilometre south of Mack Gulley, north of Roma.[1]
In 1980, Ralph E. Molnar named and described the type species, in this case the only species known in the genus, Minmi paravertebra. The generic name, at the time the shortest of a Mesozoic dinosaur, refers to Minmi Crossing. The meaning of "minmi" itself is uncertain; it refers to a large lily in the local aboriginal language but might also be derived from min min, a kind of will-o'-the-wisp. The specific name refers to strange bone elements found along the vertebrae, for which Molnar coined the designation paravertebrae.[1]
The holotype, QM F10329, was discovered in a layer of the Bungil Formation, the Minmi Member, a lagoon deposit which was first dated to the Barremian-Valanginian, but later was recalibrated to the Aptian. It consists of a partial skeleton, lacking the skull. It preserves a series of eleven back vertebrae, ribs, a right hindlimb, and plates of the belly armour.[1] It was the first specimen of a thyreophoran discovered in the Southern Hemisphere.
In 1989, a much more complete skeleton was discovered, specimen QM F1801 that includes the skull and shows an articulated body armour. It was referred to a Minmi sp. Since 1989, most information provided on Minmi in books and illustrations is based on this second exemplar, but in 2015, it was named as a separate genus, Kunbarrasaurus.[2]
Between 1989 and 1996 several other specimens were discovered and ultimately referred to a Minmi sp. These include QM F33286: a rump with pelvis and osteoderms; AM F35259: ribs with osteoderms; QM F33565: a partial thighbone; and QM F33566: a partial shinbone, perhaps of the same individual as QM F33565. AM F35259 is part of the collection of the Australian Museum.[3] Later specimen QM F119849 was reported, consisting of ribs and osteoderms.[4]
Description
Minmi was a small
Unlike other ankylosaurians, Minmi had horizontally oriented plates of bones that ran along the sides of its
Phylogeny
In 1980, Molnar placed Minmi in the
Paleobiology and diet
A scientific paper that was published in the year 2000 by
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Molnar, R.E. (1980). "An ankylosaur (Ornithischia: Reptilia) from the Lower Cretaceous of southern Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 20: 65–75.
- ^ PMID 26664806.
- ^ Molnar, R.E. (1996). "Preliminary report on a new ankylosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Queensland, Australia". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 39 (3): 653–668.
- S2CID 129461328.
- ISBN 978-0691167664.
- ISBN 978-0691137209.
- ^ Arbour, Victoria Megan, 2014, Systematics, evolution, and biogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs Ph.D. thesis, University of Alberta
- ^ S2CID 214625754.
- .
- ^ Molnar, R.E.; Frey, E. (1987). "The paravertebral elements of the Australian ankylosaur Minmi (Reptilia: Ornithischia, Cretaceous)". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 175: 19–37.
- S2CID 86002282.
- ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9.
- ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9.
- S2CID 86122918. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
Further reading
- The Dinosaur Age Mega, issue 4, Magazine of the National Dinosaur Museum, Canberra
External links
- Media related to Minmi at Wikimedia Commons
- Australian Age of Dinosaurs