Gobisaurus
Name:
Gobisaurus
(Gobi lizard - after the Gobi Desert).
Phonetic: Go-bee-sore-us.
Named By: Matthew K. Vickaryous, Anthony P.
Russell, Philip J. Currie & Xi-Jin Zhao - 2001.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Ankylosauridae.
Species: G. domoculus (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Total size uncertain, skull 46
centimetres long, 45 centimetres wide.
Known locations: Mongolia - Ulansuhai Formation.
Time period: Initially Aptian to Albian of the
Cretaceous, later analysis of the fossil Formation the type specimen
was recovered from has suggested a date up to the Turonian of the
Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and additional post
cranial remains (the latter still awaiting description at time of
writing).
Gobisaurus
is very similar to another earlier named ankylosaur called Shamosaurus,
yet there are enough differences in the skull features to be certain
that these are separate genera, but ones that seem to be closely
related. New analysis of the Ulansuhai Formation has also indicated
that Gobisaurus may have lived around the Turonian
stage of the
Cretaceous, whereas Shamosaurus seems to have
lived around the
earlier Aptian-Albian stages of the Cretaceous.
Other
dinosaurs known from the Ulansuhai Formation include the theropods
Chilantaisaurus
and Shaochilong
and it’s exactly these kinds of
dinosaurs that Gobisaurus would have relied upon
its armour to protect
itself from. Additionally the ornithomimid
dinosaur Sinornithomimus
also seems to have been active in the same habitat as Shamosaurus,
although this dinosaur is highly unlikely to have been a threat to an
ankylosaur like Shamosaurus, even if the exact
diet of most
ornithomimid dinosaurs is unknown.
Further reading
- A new ankylosaurid
(Dinosauria: Ankylosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous of China, with
comments on ankylosaurian relationships. - Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences 38:1767-1780. - M. K. Vickaryous, A. P. Russell, P. J. Currie
& X.-J. Zhao - 2001.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |