Turanoceratops

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Turanoceratops
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Life restoration of Turanoceratops tardabilis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Ceratopsia
Clade: †
Euceratopsia
Parvorder: †
Coronosauria
Superfamily: †
Ceratopsoidea
Genus: †Turanoceratops
Nesov et al., 1989
Type species
Turanoceratops tardabilis
Nesov et al., 1989

Turanoceratops ("

ceratopsian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The fossils dated from the mid-late Turonian
stage, roughly 90 million years ago. The skull bore a pair of long brow horns like those seen in the Ceratopsidae, although Turanoceratops appears to have been transitional between earlier ceratopsians and ceratopsids, and not a ceratopsid itself.

Discovery and naming

From the 1920s onwards, Soviet scientists discovered fragmentary fossils near

paleontologist Lev Aleksandrovich Nesov based on these published the name Turanoceratops tardabilis,[1] but did not provide a description so that for the time being it remained a nomen nudum. In 1989, Nesov, L.F. Kaznysjkina and Gennady Olegovich Cherepanov validly named the type species Turanoceratops tardabilis. The generic name is a combination of Turan, an old Persian name for Turkestan, the general region of the finds, and ~ceratops, "horned face", a usual suffix in ceratopian names. The specific name means "retarding" in Latin, referring to the protracted research.[2]

The

ankylosaur
armour plates. Authentic material includes postorbitals with brow horn cores, teeth, a predentary and limb elements.

In 2004, Peter Dodson considered it a nomen dubium,[3] but in 2009 Hans-Dieter Sues concluded that it was a valid taxon.[4]

Description

Size of Turanoceratops tardabilis compared to a human

Turanoceratops was a relatively small animal. In 2010, Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at two metres, its weight at 175 kilogrammes.[5]

Sues in 2009 determined some typically basal traits, indicating a lower position in the evolutionary tree, and some more derived traits, showing a higher position. Basal traits are the variably developed secondary ridges on the tooth crowns and the possession of just two or three teeth per tooth position. Derived traits, relative to the more basal Zuniceratops, are the increase of the number of teeth to two or three and the possession of two roots per teeth. More general derived traits are the exclusion of the frontal bone from the upper rim of the eye socket and the presence of incipient cavities in the skull roof.[4]

Classification

Turanoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period, which ended 66 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this period. A 2009 study led by Hans-Dieter Sues analysed additional fossil material of Turanoceratops and concluded that, contrary to expectations, it represented a true (though "transitional") member of the family

synapomorphies
of this group.

Paleobiology

Restoration of a resting individual

Turanoceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape"[clarification needed][citation needed], and so it is likely that this dinosaur fed on the predominant plants of the era: ferns and conifers. It would have used its sharp ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ Nessov L.A., 1988, "[Assemblages of vertebrates of the late Mesozoic and Paleocene of Middle Asia]", Trudy XXXI Sess. Vsesoyuz Paleont. Obshchestva. Nauka, Leningrad, pp 93–101
  2. ^ L.A. Nessov, F. Kaznyshkina, & G.O. Cherepanov, 1989, "Ceratopsian dinosaurs and crocodiles of the middle Mesozoic of Asia", In: Bogdanova & Khozatsky (eds.) Theoretical and applied aspects of modern paleontology, pp 142-149
  3. ^ H. You and P. Dodson, 2004, "Basal Ceratopsia". In: D. B. Weishampel, H. Osmolska, and P. Dodson (eds.), The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press, Berkeley pp 478-493
  4. ^
    doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0518-9
    .
  5. ^ Paul, G.S., 2010, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press p. 283
  6. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0543-8
    .
  7. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0552-7
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Turanoceratops&oldid=1167422133"