Tarchia

Skull of Tarchia gigantea

• Mongolia

• Tarchia gigantea ( Maleev, 1956)

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

Features

Tarchia was one of the largest Ankylar with an estimated length of 8 meters. He pointed to the typical physique of this group: he had a stocky body, which was carried by four strong legs. While the hind limbs were slightly longer than the front, but he was moving quadruped ( on all fours ) continued. As with all ankylosauruses the hull with an armor of bony plates covered. The tail ended in a massive bone mace, which probably served the enemy defenses.

The skull of Tarchia was built massive and broad, the snout ended in a broad, toothless horny beak. The top of the skull was also covered by an armor of roundish bone plates. At the back of his head he wore two horn-like outgrowths, two other outgrowths were present on the cheeks. The teeth were adapted to small and leaves shaped like most ankylosauruses and a plant-based diet. They were indented inward, suggesting that he had cheeks.

Discovery and designation

Fossil remains of Tarchia were found in the Nemegt formation in the Mongolian region Ömnö Gobi aimag and first described under the name Dyoplosaurus. This generic name was already used for a North American Ankylar. Further findings revealed that there are dealing with your own dinosaur genus, for which the name Tarchia was chosen. The name comes from the Mongolian name for the brain ( " Tarchi " ) and plays less on the supposed mental abilities of this animal - actually had Ankylar proportionately smaller brains than Stegosauria - than to the voluminous skull. The only recognized species is Tarchia gigantea, a second type described, T. kielanae, is now regarded as a synonym of T. gigantea.

Overall, the remains including complete skulls and nearly complete postcranial skeletons were seven animals found. The finds are (late Campanian or early Maastrichtian ) dated to the Late Cretaceous to an age of about 76 to 69 million years. Tarchia is thus the youngest known Asian Ankylar and also the largest.