Menefeeceratops

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Menefeeceratops
Temporal range: Campanian,
82–81  Ma  (conservative) [1]
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
83.5–80 Ma (maximum interval) [1]
Menefeeceratops.png
Life reconstruction of M. sealeyi
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Ceratopsia
Family: Ceratopsidae
Subfamily: Centrosaurinae
Genus: Menefeeceratops
Dalman et al., 2021
Type species
Menefeeceratops sealeyi
Dalman et al., 2021

Menefeeceratops (meaning "Menefee Formation horned face") is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Menefee Formation in New Mexico, United States. It is potentially the oldest known member of the ceratopsids, as well as the centrosaurine subfamily, related to animals including Yehuecauhceratops and Crittendenceratops . The type and only species is Menefeeceratops sealeyi, known from a partial, non-articulated skeleton. [1]

Contents

Discovery and naming

Squamosal bone (C) compared to those of other basal centrosaurines Basal centrosaurine squamosals.png
Squamosal bone (C) compared to those of other basal centrosaurines

The holotype, NMMNH P-25052, of Menefeeceratops was discovered by Paul Sealey in 1996 and later mentioned in a paper in 1997, [2] but was not given a name until it was revisited in 2021 by Sebastian Dalman, Peter Dodson, and colleagues. The holotype was collected at the NMMNH locality 3033 in Sandoval County, New Mexico, USA, whose rocks came from the early Campanian rocks of the Allison Member of the Menefee Formation. [2] [1] The holotype was later collected by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History with permission of the Bureau of Land Management, who owned the land the fossils were found on, and consisted of a fragmentary skull, mandible, several fragmentary vertebrae, some ribs, the left ilium, and several fragmentary limb elements. [1] Menefeeceratops is the only Centrosaurine described from New Mexico, while many Chasmosaurines such as Pentaceratops and Sierraceratops having been described from the late Campanian and Maastrichtian. [3] [4]

Menefeeceratops is named from the location where the fossils were found, and in honor of Paul Sealey, the research associate at the NMMNH who originally discovered them in 1996. [1]

Description

Size comparison Menefeeceratops Size Comparison.svg
Size comparison

Based on comparisons with related animals including Styracosaurus , Vagaceratops , and Centrosaurus , Menefeeceratops is believed to have been approximately 4–4.5 metres (13–15 ft) long in life. [1]

Classification

Centrosaurinae

Paleoenvironment

The disarticulated holotype of Menefeeceratops was collected in a greenish-gray mudstone alongside an isolated trionychid turtle costal and fragments of fossilized woods. [1] The Menefee Formation represents a widespread alluvial floodplain and consists of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, and coal. The sandstones that comprise the Menefee Formation that are fixed within carbonaceous shales of coastal swamp or lagoon origin and are thought to have been created by flood tidal deltas that north and east across New Mexico and towards the retreating Western Interior Seaway. [2]

Menefeeceratops was contemporaneous with an indeterminate ankylosaur, [2] the nodosaurid Invictarx , [5] an indeterminate hadrosaurid, [6] the brachylophosaurin hadrosaurid Ornatops , [7] the tyrannosaurid Dynamoterror, [8] an indeterminate tyrannosaurid, [6] and a dromaeosaurid similar to Saurornitholestes . [6] Non-dinosaur taxa contemporaneous with Menefeeceratops include an indeterminate crocodylian, [2] the alligatoroids Brachychampsa and Deinosuchus , [9] [10] an indeterminate baenid turtle, [6] an indeterminate turtle, [2] and an indeterminate trionychid turtle. [6] [2] [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirtland Formation</span> Geological formation in New Mexico and Colorado, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menefee Formation</span> Geologic formation in New Mexico and Colorado

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

Nasutoceratops is genus of ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period, about 76.0–75.5 million years ago. The first known specimens were discovered in Utah in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) from 2006 onwards, including a subadult skull with a partial postcranial skeleton and rare skin impressions and two partial skulls. In 2013, the subadult was made the holotype of the new genus and species Nasutoceratops titusi; the generic name means "large-nosed horned face", and the specific name honors the paleotologist Alan L. Titus for his work at the GSENM. The dinosaur was noted for its large nose in news reports, and later featured in Jurassic World films.

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Adelolophus is a genus of lambeosaurine dinosaur from Upper Cretaceous rocks in the U.S. state of Utah. The type and only known species is A. hutchisoni; the type specimen consists only of a broken maxilla. It constitutes the oldest known lambeosaur remains from North America, as well as the only known lambeosaur species from the Wahweap Formation, of which it pertains to the Upper Member. Among its relatives, it seems to be particularly similar to Parasaurolophus, rather than animals like Lambeosaurus; phylogenetic analysis confirms this, finding it in Parasaurolophini. It would have lived in a wet environment, bordering on the sea but with a more arid season during some times of the year. This environment would have been shared with a diverse variety of fish and turtles, as well as other dinosaurs like ceratopsids and tyrannosaurids.

<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>Invictarx</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Invictarx is a monospecific genus of nodosaurid dinosaur from New Mexico that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the upper Allison Member of the Menefee Formation. The type and only species, Invictarx zephyri, is known from three isolated, incomplete postcranial skeletons. It was named in 2018 by Andrew T. McDonald and Douglas G. Wolfe. Invictarx shares similarities with Glyptodontopelta from the Naashoibito member of the Ojo Alamo Formation, New Mexico.

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

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dalman, Sebastian G.; Lucas, Spencer G.; Jasinki, Steven G.; Lichtig, Asher J.; Dodson, Peter (2021). "The oldest centrosaurine: a new ceratopsid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) from the Allison Member of the Menefee Formation (Upper Cretaceous, early Campanian), northwestern New Mexico, USA". PalZ. 95 (2): 291–335. doi:10.1007/s12542-021-00555-w. S2CID   234351502.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Williamson, TE (1997). "A new Late Cretaceous (early Campanian) vertebrate fauna from the Allison Member, Menefee Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico". In Lucas, SG; Estep, JW; Williamson, TE; Morgan, GS (eds.). New Mexico's Fossil Record 1. Albuquerque: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 11. pp. 51–59. Retrieved 21 April 2021..
  3. Dalman, Sebastian G.; Lucas, Spencer G.; Jasinski, Steven E.; Longrich, Nicholas R. (2022-02-01). "Sierraceratops turneri, a new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Hall Lake Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of south-central New Mexico". Cretaceous Research. 130: 105034. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.105034. ISSN   0195-6671. S2CID   244210664.
  4. H.F. Osborn, 1923, "A new genus and species of Ceratopsia from New Mexico, Pentaceratops sternbergii, American Museum Novitates93: 1-3
  5. McDonald, Andrew T.; Wolfe, Douglas G. (2018-08-24). "A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico". PeerJ. 6: e5435. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5435 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   6110256 . PMID   30155354.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Hunt, Adrian P.; Lucas, Spencer G. (1993). "Cretaceous vertebrates of New Mexico". In Lucas, S.G.; Zidek, J. (eds.). Dinosaurs of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 2. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 77–91.
  7. McDonald, Andrew T.; Wolfe, Douglas G.; Fowler, Elizabeth A. Freedman; Gates, Terry A. (2021-04-02). "A new brachylophosaurin (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico". PeerJ. 9: e11084. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11084 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   8020878 . PMID   33859873.
  8. McDonald, Andrew T.; Wolfe, Douglas G.; Dooley, Alton C. Jr. (2018-10-09). "A new tyrannosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico". PeerJ. 6: e5749. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5749 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   6183510 . PMID   30324024.
  9. Mohler, Benjamin F.; McDonald, Andrew T.; Wolfe, Douglas G. (2021-04-21). "First remains of the enormous alligatoroid Deinosuchus from the Upper Cretaceous Menefee Formation, New Mexico". PeerJ. 9: e11302. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11302 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   8080887 . PMID   33981505.
  10. Williamson, Thomas E. (1996-09-19). "?Brachychampsa sealeyi, sp nov., (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) from the Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian) Menefee Formation, northwestern New Mexico". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 16 (3): 421–431. doi:10.1080/02724634.1996.10011331. ISSN   0272-4634.