Prenocephale

Reconstruction of Prenocephale

• Mongolia

Prenocephale is a genus of bird Beck dinosaur ( Ornithischia ) from the group of Pachycephalosauria. Only species described is P. prenes.

Features

From Prenocephale a complete skull and skeleton parts of the body are known, so it is one of the Pachycephalosauriern better preserved. With an estimated 2.4 meters in length, it is one of the smaller members of this group. Characteristic was the thickened skull roof as in all Pachycephalosauriern. This consisted of the frontoparietal coalesced frontal and parietal bone. The skull roof was vaulted, Prenocephale is therefore one of the dome- headed Pachycephalosauriern, the upper cranial window of the temporal region were closed. Sides and back of the squamosal ( squamosal ) was a series of bony hump, also in the area of the eye socket and the nasal bone to bone bumps were. The function of this thickened calvarium is still controversial, it is unclear whether this Rammstöße were carried out against the head or the torso of the opponent or if it was just the display. (See the function of the cranial vault in the Pachycephalosauria. )

At the premaxillary bone ( premaxilla, the anterior part of the maxilla ) were three eckzahnähnliche, slightly curved teeth, one of which was the third largest. Behind it lay a gulf, the teeth of the upper jaw contributed triangular, slightly jagged crowns. Like all Pachycephalosaurier Prenocephale likely to have fed mainly vegetable, possibly supplemented by insects.

This dinosaur was moving away bipedal ( two-footed ), the hind legs were much longer than the front legs. The pool was built very wide, as with all Pachycephalosauriern.

Discovery and classification

Fossil remains of Prenocephale from the province Ömnö Gobi Aimag in Mongolia and were first described in 1974 by Maryańska and Osmólska. The name derives from the Greek words prenes ( = " inclined wrong " ) and kephale ( = " head"), a common name component of Pachycephalosauriern, from. Type species is P. prenes. The find is dated to the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian to early Maastrichtian ) at an age of about 76 to 69 million years.

While many plants with P. prenes only one type acknowledge R. Sullivan includes three other species in the genus Prenocephale one: P. brevis and P. edmontonensis ( which are usually included in Stegoceras ) and P. goodwini (who usually own in a genus is performed Sphaerotholus ). Furthermore, it would also three North American taxa added to this genus, which would expand the geographic and temporal spread of Prenocephale.