Mongolostegus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
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Skeletal reconstruction | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | † Ornithischia |
Clade: | † Thyreophora |
Clade: | † Stegosauria |
Family: | † Stegosauridae |
Genus: | † Mongolostegus Tumanova and Alifanov, 2018 |
Type species | |
†Mongolostegus exspectabilis Tumanova and Alifanov, 2018 | |
Synonyms | |
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Mongolostegus (meaning "Mongolian roof") is a genus of stegosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) Dzunbain Formation of Mongolia. The type and only species is M. exspectabilis, [1] known from a single specimen previously under the nomen nudum Wuerhosaurus mongoliensis. [2]
Mongolostegus is one of the youngest known stegosaurs, along with Stegosaurus , [3] Yanbeilong , [4] and an unnamed species from the Dzunbain Formation. [1]
The holotype is PIN 3779-15, which consists of posterior dorsal and anterior caudal vertebrae as well as pelvic material. [1] It was discovered in a layer of the Dzunbain Formation at Chamrin-Us, Mongolia.
Mongolostegus was first reported by Alifanov et al. (2005) and Alifanov (2012) as an indeterminate stegosaur. [5] [6]
Ulansky (2014) informally dubbed the material Wuerhosaurus mongoliensis, [2] but Galton and Carpenter (2016) found W. mongoliensis to be invalid. [7] It was formally named as Mongolostegus by Tumanova and Alifanov in 2018. [1]
Tumanova and Alifanov (2018) found Mongolostegus to belong to Stegosauridae. [1]