Altirhinus

Skull of Altirhinus kurzanovi

• Mongolia

Altirhinus was a genus of dinosaur bird Beck from the group of ornithopods, who lived in the Lower Cretaceous in East Asia.

Features

Altirhinus was a relative of Iguanodon and had a similar body type, even though many parts of the body are not known. The skull was 76 centimeters long, the total length of the animal was approximately 8 meters. The front limbs were shorter than the hind limbs, Altirhinus could probably move on both two and four-legged. The skull was characterized by a high nose, the muzzle was formed comparatively wide and similar to the Hadrosauriern. The teeth were adapted to a plant-based diet. The thumb was transformed as in Iguanodon to a mandrel for the fifth finger was opponierbar to a certain degree.

Discovery and designation

From Altirhinus several parts of the postcranial skeleton and skull were found in the Mongolian region Dorno Gobi aimag and first described in 1998. The name derives from Latin altus ( = " high") and Greek rhinos ( = " nose " ) from and alludes to the enlarged nose region. Only known type and therefore the type species is A. kurzanovi. The finds are dated to the late Cretaceous ( Aptian or Albian ) at an age 126-100 million years.