Platytholus

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Platytholus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian
Platytholus clemensi.png
Life restoration
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Pachycephalosauria
Family: Pachycephalosauridae
Subfamily: Pachycephalosaurinae
Genus: Platytholus
Horner, Goodwin & Evans, 2023
Species:
P. clemensi
Binomial name
Platytholus clemensi
Horner, Goodwin & Evans, 2023

Platytholus is an extinct genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Hell Creek Formation of the United States. The genus contains a single species, P. clemensi, known from a partial skull. [1]

Contents

Discovery and naming

The Platytholus holotype specimen, MOR 2915, was discovered during the early 2000s in sediments of the Hell Creek Formation, dated to the latest Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous period, in Garfield County, Montana. The specimen consists of a partial skull. [1]

In 2023, Horner, Goodwin & Evans described Platytholus clemensi, a new genus and species of pachycephalosaurid, based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "Platytholus", combines the Latinised Greek "platys", meaning "flattened", "wide", or "broad", and "tholos", meaning a "small domed hill". The specific name, "clemensi", honors American paleontologist William A. Clemens Jr. [1]

Classification

Horner, Goodwin & Evans (2023) recovered Platytholus as a pachycephalosaurine member of the Pachycephalosauridae, as the sister taxon to a clade formed by Prenocephale and Acrotholus . The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below: [1]

Pachycephalosauria
Wannanosaurus
Wannanosaurus for wiki review.jpg
Pachycephalosauridae

Hanssuesia Hanssuesia sternbergi.jpg

Colepiocephale
Colepiocephale updating version.JPG
Stegoceras
Stegoceras validum.jpg
Pachycephalosaurinae

Goyocephale

Homalocephale
Homalocephale body.jpg

Tylocephale

Foraminacephale
Foraminacephale.png

Amtocephale

Prenocephale
Prenocephale bickering (cropped + fix).jpg
Acrotholus
Acrotholus NT.jpg

Platytholus

Sphaerotholus edmontonensis

Sphaerotholus goodwini

Sphaerotholus buchholtzae

Pachycephalosaurus
Pachycephalosaurus Reconstruction.jpg
Alaskacephale
Alaskacephale gangloffi copia transparent.png

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Horner, John R.; Goodwin, Mark B.; Evans, David C. (2023-04-14). "A new pachycephalosaurid from the Hell Creek Formation, Garfield County, Montana, U.S.A.". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: e2190369. doi:10.1080/02724634.2023.2190369. ISSN   0272-4634.