Tsagantegia

• Mongolia

• Tsagantegia longicranialis Tumanova, 1993

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

From Tsagantegia is so far only the skull was found that was 30 inches long and is indicative of a medium-sized Ankylar. In contrast to other members of the Ankylosauridae the armor of the head is not a mosaic of polygons, but formless and the bumps on the cheek and the back of the head are weak. From the rest of the body is not known, probably he was like all Ankylar a covered by bony scales, quadruper dinosaur that fed on plants.

Discovery and designation

The fossil remains of Tsagantegia were discovered in the 1990s in the region Dorno Gobi Aimag in the southeastern Mongolia and named after the site Tsagan- Teg ( " White Mountains "). Only species and therefore type species is T. longicranialis. The finds are dated to the middle Cretaceous ( Santonian ) and before 86 83 million years ago.

System

Tsagantegia is within the Ankylosauridae in the Ankylosaurinae who developed higher, occurring only in the Upper Cretaceous Ankylosauridae, like. Phylogenetically, it is seen as a sister group of all other Ankylosaurinae (see also Nomenclature of Ankylosauridae ).