Gargoyleosaurus

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Gargoyleosaurus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 154–150  Ma
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Gargoyleosaurus.png
Fossil skeleton, Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Thyreophora
Clade: Ankylosauria
Family: Nodosauridae
Genus: Gargoyleosaurus
Carpenter et al. 1998
Species:
G. parkpinorum
Binomial name
Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum
Carpenter et al. 1998

Gargoyleosaurus (meaning "gargoyle lizard") is one of the earliest ankylosaurs known from reasonably complete fossil remains. The holotype was discovered in 1995 at the Bone Cabin Quarry West locality, in Albany County, Wyoming in exposures of the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian to Tithonian stages) Morrison Formation. [1]

Contents

The type species, G. parkpinorum (originally G. parkpini) was described by Ken Carpenter et al. in 1998. A mounted skeletal reconstruction of Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum can be seen at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and, alongside a couple skeletons of baby Stegosaurus , has been on display there since around 2002. Gargoyleosaurus was present in stratigraphic zone 2 of the Morrison Formation. [2]

Discovery

Size comparison Gargoyleosaurus Scale.svg
Size comparison

The holotype specimen of Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum was collected by Western Paleontology Labs in 1995 and is currently held in the collections of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colorado. Besides the holotype, two other partial skeletons are known (although not yet described). The holotype consists of most of the skull and a partial postcranial skeleton. The specimen was originally described as Gargoyleosaurus parkpini by Carpenter, Miles and Cloward in 1998, then renamed G. parkpinorum by Carpenter et al. in 2001, in accordance with ICZN art. 31.1.2A.

Description

Gargoyleosaurus was a relatively small ankylosaur, reaching 3–3.5 m (9.8–11.5 ft) in length and 300–754 kg (661–1,662 lb) in body mass. [3] [4] [5] Much of the skull and skeleton has been recovered, and the taxon displays cranial sculpturing, including pronounced deltoid quadratojugal and squamosal bosses. The taxon is further characterized by a narrow rostrum (in dorsal view), the presence of seven conical teeth in each premaxilla, an incomplete osseous nasal septum, a linearly arranged nasal cavity, the absence of an osseus secondary palate, and, as regards osteoderms, two sets of co-ossified cervical plates and a number of elongate conical spines. [1] A very unusual feature is the sagittal (midline) osteoderm on the first set of cervical plates; in most other ankylosaurs, these osteoderms are bilateral, i.e. paired with one on each side of the midline. [3]

Classification

Gargoy.jpg
Gargoyleosaurus skeleton cast, Museum of Ancient Life, Thanksgiving Point
Gargoyleosaurus - top.tif
Skeleton of Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum in top view
Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum (DMNH 27726) Skull and cervical armor in side and front view. Insert shows a cheek tooth. The skull is slightly crushed changing the shape of the orbit. Gargoyleosaurus skull.jpg
Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum (DMNH 27726) Skull and cervical armor in side and front view. Insert shows a cheek tooth. The skull is slightly crushed changing the shape of the orbit.
Life restoration Gargoyle.png
Life restoration

Vickaryous et al. (2004) place Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum within the family Ankylosauridae of the Ankylosauria and are in agreement with most previous phylogenetic hypotheses, which place the genus as the sister group to all other ankylosaurids (i.e., members of the Ankylosauridae). These studies however, only utilized the skull, whereas many of the distinctive features of the family Polacanthidae are in the postcranial skeleton. In contrast, a phylogenetic analysis by Soto-Acuña and colleagues in 2021 recovered Gargoyleosaurus as a nodosaurid.

Below is a reproduced phylogenetic analysis from Soto-Acuña et al. (2021): [6]

Thyreophora

See also

Related Research Articles

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Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are known to have first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, and persisted until the end of the Cretaceous Period. The two main families of Ankylosaurs, Nodosauridae and Ankylosauridae are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere, but the more basal Parankylosauria are known from southern Gondwana during the Cretaceous.

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

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

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References

  1. 1 2 Benton, Michael J. (2012). Prehistoric Life. Edinburgh, Scotland: Dorling Kindersley. p. 278. ISBN   978-0-7566-9910-9.
  2. Foster, J. (2007). "Appendix." Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. pp. 327–329.
  3. 1 2 Kilbourne, B. and Carpenter, K. 2005. "Redescription of Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum, a polacanthid ankylosaur from the Upper Jurassic of Albany County, Wyoming". N. Jb. Geol. Palaont. Abh.237: 111–160
  4. Farlow, James O.; Coroian, Dan; Currie, Philip J.; Foster, John R.; Mallon, Jordan C.; Therrien, François (2022-07-11). ""Dragons" on the landscape: Modeling the abundance of large carnivorous dinosaurs of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation (USA) and the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation (Canada)". The Anatomical Record. 306 (7): 1669–1696. doi: 10.1002/ar.25024 . ISSN   1932-8486. PMID   35815600. S2CID   250422526.
  5. Paul, Gregory S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press. p. 252. ISBN   978-1-78684-190-2. OCLC   985402380.
  6. Soto-Acuña, Sergio; Vargas, Alexander O.; Kaluza, Jonatan; Leppe, Marcelo A.; Botelho, Joao F.; Palma-Liberona, José; Simon-Gutstein, Carolina; Fernández, Roy A.; Ortiz, Héctor; Milla, Verónica; Aravena, Bárbara (2021). "Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile". Nature. 600 (7888): 259–263. Bibcode:2021Natur.600..259S. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04147-1. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   34853468. S2CID   244799975.