Shamosaurus

• Mongolia

• Shamosaurus scutatus Tumanova, 1983

Shamosaurus was a genus of bird Beck dinosaurs from the group of Ankylosauria who lived in the Lower Cretaceous in East Asia.

Features

Shamosaurus was a relatively large Ankylar. The head measured 36 inches, the overall length could have amounted to 5 to 7 meters, but is uncertain since only scattered bones of the body skeleton were found. The comparatively narrow skull was built including through the round squamosal ( squamosal ) and characterizes the large eye sockets and nostrils. From the rest of the body very little is known, presumably he was like all Ankylar a covered by bony scales, quadruper dinosaur that fed on plants.

Discovery and designation

The fossil remains of Shamosaurus were discovered in the 1980s in Mongolia and named after " Shamo ", an old name of the Gobi desert. Only species and therefore type species is P. scutatus. The finds are dated to the late Cretaceous ( Aptian to Albian, approximately 125 to 100 million years ago).

System

Nearest relative of Shamosaurus likely to have been in the same region ( but later ) pre Gobisaurus arrived. However, the two species differ from one another in the length of the tooth row ( at Shamosaurus much longer) and by occurring only at Gobisaurus projection of the vomer.

Shamosaurus and Gobisaurus form an unnamed clade that forms the sister taxon to the Ankylosaurinae ( more sophisticated Ankylosauridae ) (see Nomenclature of Ankylosauridae ).