Hylaeosaurus
Drawing from 1858 of the embedded in the rock matrix fossils from the Tilgate Forrest
- Hylaeosaurus armatus
Hylaeosaurus is a genus of bird Beck dinosaur from the group of Ankylosauria. It is one of the first dinosaurs become known and has already been described for the first time in 1833.
From Hylaeosaurus there are only sparse finds, it is mainly the front half of the skeleton together with some bone plates as well as isolated fragments of the skull known. This dinosaur may have moved obsessed with stocky limbs and on all fours ( Quadrupedie ). As with all Ankylosauria its hull by numerous bony plates ( osteoderms ) was covered, which served as armor. The length of the animals has probably be around four to six meters. He was probably like all Ankylar herbivores.
Discovery and designation
Hylaeosaurus was one of the first dinosaurs that have been discovered. Fossil finds from the Tilgate Forest in Sussex ( South England ) were first described in 1833 by Gideon Mantell. The Greek name means " forest lizard" and alludes to the locality of. Together with Iguanodon and Megalosaurus was Hylaeosaurus to those animals for which Richard Owen in 1842 the term " Dinosauria " coined.
The finds are dated to the early Cretaceous ( Valanginian ) at an age 139-134 million years, and are thus among the oldest ankylosauruses. Finds are known from England and Germany.
System
Type species and only one recognized species is H. armatus. Two other species are now placed in the genus Polacanthus - according to some researchers, it is at Polacanthus - from the mainly known the back half - to the same genus as Hylaeosaurus. The classification in the classification of Ankylosauria is difficult due to the scarcity of finds, Vickaryous et al. ( 2004) present him as " incertae sedis Ankylosauria ".