Acantholipan

Last updated

Acantholipan
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 83.6  Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Acantholipan LM.png
Life restoration based on Sauropelta , a possible relative
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Thyreophora
Clade: Ankylosauria
Family: Nodosauridae
Subfamily: Nodosaurinae
Genus: Acantholipan
Rivera-Sylva et al., 2018
Type species
Acantholipan gonzalezi
Rivera-Sylva et al. 2018

Acantholipan is a genus of herbivorous nodosaurid dinosaur from Mexico from the early Santonian age of the Late Cretaceous. It includes one species, Acantholipan gonzalezi. [1]

Contents

Discovery and naming

In the north of Mexico, fragmentary fossils have been found of nodosaurids. A partial skeleton excavated at Los Primos near San Miguel in Coahuila, was described in 2011. When Rivera-Sylva and colleagues reported the discovery of this specimen, CPC 272, they initially considered it too fragmentary to name. [2] Later it was judged that the remains were sufficiently distinct to be given a binomial name.

In 2018, the type species Acantholipan gonzalezi was named by Héctor Eduardo Rivera-Sylva, Eberhard Frey, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Gerardo Carbot-Chanona, Iván Erick Sánchez-Uribe and José Rubén Guzmán-Gutiérrez. The generic name combines a Greek akanthos, "spine", with lipán, the usual Spanish designation of the Lépai-Ndé , the "Gray People", a tribe of the Apache inhabiting the area of the find. The specific name honours the Mexican paleontologist Arturo Homero González-González, the chairman of the Museo del Desierto at Saltillo. Acantholipan is the first ankylosaurian species named from Mexico. [1]

The holotype specimen, CPC 272, was found alongside another nodosaur, CPC 273, in a marine layer of the Pen Formation and dates from the Santonian. It consists of partial skeleton lacking the skull. Its remains include a back vertebra, a tail vertebra, a piece of a rib, the underside of the left humerus, an upper left ulna, the underside of the left femur and a spike-like osteoderm probably from the posterior thorax. [2] The fossil is part of the Colección Paleontológica de Coahuila, Museo del Desierto, Saltillo. [1]

Classification

Acantholipan belongs to the Nodosaurinae and is the sister taxon to Nodosaurus . [1] The 2018 phylogenetic analysis of Rivera-Sylva and colleagues is below: [1]

Nodosauridae

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Nodosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Nodosaurus is a genus of herbivorous nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, the fossils of which are found exclusively in the Frontier Formation in Wyoming.

<i>Animantarx</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Animantarx is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early and Late Cretaceous of western North America. Like other nodosaurs, it would have been a slow-moving quadrupedal herbivore covered in heavy armor scutes, but without a tail club. The skull measures approximately 25 cm in length, suggesting the animal as a whole was no more than 3 meters long.

<i>Edmontonia</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Edmontonia is a genus of panoplosaurin nodosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period. It is part of the Nodosauridae, a family within Ankylosauria. It is named after the Edmonton Formation, the unit of rock where it was found.

<i>Gastonia</i> (dinosaur) Ankylosaurian dinosaur genus from the Early Cretaceous period

Gastonia is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of North America, around 139 to 134.6 million years ago. It is often considered a nodosaurid closely related to Polacanthus. Gastonia has a sacral shield and large shoulder spikes.

<i>Struthiosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Struthiosaurus is a genus of nodosaurid dinosaurs, from the Late Cretaceous period (Santonian-Maastrichtian) of Austria, Romania, France and Hungary in Europe. It was a small dinosaur, measuring 2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) in length and weighing 300–400 kg (660–880 lb).

<i>Aletopelta</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Aletopelta is a monospecific genus of basal ankylosaurid dinosaur from Southern California that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Point Loma Formation. The type and only species, Aletopelta coombsi, is known from a partial skeleton preserving osteoderms. It was originally described in 1996 by W. P. Coombs, Jr. and T.A. Deméré before being named in 2001 by Tracy Ford and James Kirkland. Aletopelta has an estimated size of 5 metres and weight of 2 tonnes. The holotype formed a miniature reef and was scavenged upon by invertebrates and sharks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nodosauridae</span> Extinct family of armored dinosaurs

Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous periods in what is now Asia, Europe, North America, and possibly South America. While traditionally regarded as a monophyletic clade as the sister taxon to the Ankylosauridae, some analyses recover it as a paraphyletic grade leading to the ankylosaurids.

Sauroplites is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.

<i>Texasetes</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Texasetes is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaurs from the late Lower Cretaceous of North America. This poorly known genus has been recovered from the Paw Paw Formation near Haslet, Tarrant County, Texas, which has also produced the nodosaurid ankylosaur Pawpawsaurus.

<i>Cedarpelta</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Cedarpelta is an extinct genus of basal ankylosaurid dinosaur from Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. The type and only species, Cedarpelta bilbeyhallorum, is known from multiple specimens including partial skulls and postcranial material. It was named in 2001 by Kenneth Carpenter, James Kirkland, Don Burge, and John Bird. Cedarpelta has an estimated length of 7 metres and weight of 5 tonnes (11,023 lbs). The skull of Cedarpelta lacks extensive cranial ornamentation and is one of the only known ankylosaurs with individual skull bones that are not completely fused together.

<i>Pawpawsaurus</i> Extinct species of reptile

Pawpawsaurus, meaning "Pawpaw Lizard", is a nodosaurid ankylosaur from the Cretaceous of Tarrant County, Texas, discovered in May 1992. The only species yet assigned to this taxon, Pawpawsaurus campbelli, is based on a complete skull from the marine Paw Paw Formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polacanthinae</span> Extinct subfamily of dinosaurs

Polacanthinae is a subfamily of ankylosaurs, most often nodosaurids, from the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous of Europe and potentially North America and Asia. The group is defined as the largest clade closer to Polacanthus foxii than Nodosaurus textilis or Ankylosaurus magniventris, as long as that group nests within either Nodosauridae or Ankylosauridae. If Polacanthus, and by extent Polacanthinae, falls outside either family-level clade, then the -inae suffix would be inappropriate, and the proper name for the group would be the informally defined Polacanthidae.

<i>Muzquizopteryx</i> Genus of nyctosaurid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous

Muzquizopteryx is a genus of nyctosaurid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of what is now Coahuila, Mexico.

<i>Peloroplites</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Peloroplites is a monospecific genus of nodosaurid dinosaur from Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. The type and only species, Peloroplites cedrimontanus, is known from a partial skull and postcranial skeleton. It was named in 2008 by Kenneth Carpenter and colleagues. Peloroplites was 6 metres long and weighed 2 tonnes, making it one of the largest known nodosaurids, and came from a time when ankylosaurids and nodosaurids were attaining large sizes.

<i>Ahshislepelta</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Ahshislepelta is a monospecific genus of ankylosaur dinosaur from New Mexico that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Hunter Wash Member of the Kirtland Formation. The type and only species, Ahshislepelta minor, is known only from an incomplete postcranial skeleton of a small subadult or adult individual. It was named in 2011 by Michael Burns and Robert M. Sullivan. Based on the size of the humerus, Ahshislepelta is larger than Pinacosaurus mephistocephalus but smaller than Talarurus and Pinacosaurus grangeri.

Dongyangopelta is an monospecific genus of nodosaurid dinosaur that lived in China during the Early to Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Chaochuan Formation. The type and only known species, Dongyangopelta yangyanensis, is known from a partial postcranial skeleton preserving osteoderms and ossified tendons. It was named in 2013 by Rongjun Chen, Wenjie Zheng, Yoichi Azuma, Masateru Shibata, Tianling Lou, Qiang Jin and Xinsheng Jin. Dongyangopelta represents one of the only nodosaurids known from Asia, along with Taohelong and Sauroplites.

<i>Europelta</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Europelta is a monospecific genus of nodosaurid dinosaur from Spain that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now the lower Escucha Formation of the Teruel Province. The type and only species, Europelta carbonensis, is known from two associated partial skeletons, and represents the most complete ankylosaur known from Europe. Europelta was named in 2013 by James I. Kirkland and colleagues. Europelta has an estimated length of 5 metres and weight of 1.3 tonnes, making it the largest member of the clade Struthiosaurini.

The Pen Formation is a Campanian-age geologic unit in the western United States.

<i>Yehuecauhceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Yehuecauhceratops is a genus of horned centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Coahuila, Mexico. It contains a single species, Y. mudei, described from two partial specimens by Rivera-Sylva et al. in 2016 and formally named by Rivera-Sylva et al. in 2017. It was a small centrosaurine with a body length of 3 metres (9.8 ft), making it smaller than Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, the other two ceratopsids in its environment; the three may have been ecologically segregated. A ridge bearing a single roughened projection near the bottom of the squamosal bone, which probably supported a small horn, allows Yehuecauhceratops to be distinguished from other centrosaurines. Its affinities to nasutoceratopsin centrosaurines, such as Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops, are supported by various morphological similarities to the former.

<i>Patagopelta</i> Genus of nodosaurid dinosaurs

Patagopelta is an extinct genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Allen Formation of Argentina. The genus contains a single species, P. cristata, known from a partial skeleton. While originally described as a nodosaurine, later discoveries provided support for parankylosaurian affinities for the taxon. Patagopelta is a very small ankylosaur, comparable in size to the dwarf nodosaurid Struthiosaurus, about 2 m (6.6 ft) long.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rivera-Sylva, H.E.; Frey, E.; Stinnesbeck, W.; Carbot-Chanona, G.; Sanchez-Uribe, I.E.; Guzmán-Gutiérrez, J.R. (2018). "Paleodiversity of Late Cretaceous Ankylosauria from Mexico and their phylogenetic significance". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. 137 (1): 83–93. Bibcode:2018SwJP..137...83R. doi: 10.1007/s13358-018-0153-1 . ISSN   1664-2376. S2CID   134924657.
  2. 1 2 Rivera-Sylva, H.E.; Carpenter, K.; Aranda-Manteca, F.J. (2011). "Late Cretaceous Nodosaurids (Ankylosauria: Ornithischia) from Mexico" (PDF). Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas. 28 (3). Querétaro, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico: 371–378.