Tatankacephalus
Name:
Tatankacephalus
(Bison head).
Phonetic: Tah-tan-kah-sef-ah-luss.
Named By: William L. Parsons & Kirsten
M. Parsons - 2009.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Nodosauridae.
Species: T. cooneyorum
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Complete skull about 32 centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, Montana - Cloverly
Formation.
Time period: Aptian/Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull, two
fragmented osteoderms and two partial ribs.
Tatankacephalus
is a genus of nodosaur
that lived in what is now Montana during the
early Cretaceous period. Best known from an incomplete skull,
Tatankacephalus has been interpreted as a close
relative to the better
known nodosaurid dinosaur Gastonia.
A different genus of nodosaurid
dinosaur from the same location as Tatankacephalus
is Sauropelta,
though it has been clearly established that Tatankacephalus
is
separate from this genus. This is because although the holotype skull
of Tatankacephalus was only partially preserved,
it was preserved
free from compression damage and distortion, making it much easy to
study the features of the skull with certainty.
Tatankacephalus
is a combination for the Tatanka word for Bison and the Ancient Greek
word for head, so the name comes together and translates to English
as ‘Bison head. The type species name T. cooneyorum
is in honour
of the family of John Patrick Cooney. Tatankacephalus
should not be
confused with the similarly named dinosaur, Tatankaceratops.
Further reading
- A new ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ankylosauria) from the Lower
Cretaceous Cloverly Formation of central Montana. - Canadian
Journal of Earth Sciences 46(10):721-738. - William L.
Parsons & Kirsten M. Parsons - 2009.
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