Alaskacephale
Name:
Alaskacephale
(Alaskan head).
Phonetic: Ah-lass-kah-sef-a-lay.
Named By: R. M. Sullivan 2006.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Pachycephalosauria, Pachycephalosauridae.
Species: A. gangloffi
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unknown due to lack of fossil remains, but
comparison to similar pachycephalosaur dinosaurs suggests a rough
estimate of about 2.4 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Alaska - Prince Creek
Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: A left squamosal (one of
the skull bones) and part of the parietal dome.
The
first pachycepahlosaurid
dinosaur known from Alaska, Alaskacephale is
also one of the few dinosaurs known to have lived in the area that
would become that state. Unfortunately not a lot is known about this
dinosaur because of a current sever lack of remains, but the original
describers believe that Alaskacephale may have been
roughly the same
size as the better preserved Prenocephale.
The
holotype specimen of Alaskacephale was first
described by Gangloff,
Fiorillo and Norton in 2005, but it was not established as a genus
until it was re-described by Sullivan in 2006. The genus name is in
reference to the state of Alaska and the fact that it is a
pachycephalosaurid dinosaur. The type species name is in honour of
R. A. Gangloffi, one of the original describers.
Further reading
- The first pachycephalosaurine (Dinosauria) from the
Paleo-Arctic of Alaska and its paleogeographic implications, R. A.
Gangloff, A. R. Fiorillo & D. W. Norton - 2005.
- A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria:
Ornithischia), R. M. Sullivan 2006.
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