Stegosaurides | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Order: | † Ornithischia |
Clade: | † Eurypoda |
Suborder: | † Ankylosauria (?) |
Genus: | † Stegosaurides Bohlin, 1953 |
Species: | †S. excavatus |
Binomial name | |
†Stegosaurides excavatus Bohlin, 1953 | |
Synonyms | |
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Stegosaurides (meaning " Stegosaurus -shaped") is a genus of herbivorous thyreophoran (perhaps ankylosaurid or possibly stegosaurian) dinosaur. It lived during the Cretaceous. Its fossils were found in the Xinminbao Group near Heishan in Gansu Province in China. These fossils consist of fragmentary material, including dermal spine elements. The genus is occasionally misspelled as "Stegosauroides".
In 1930, Anders Birger Bohlin during the Swedish-Chinese expedition of Sven Hedin excavated fossils at Hui-Hui-Pu, between the Heishan en Ku’an-t’ai-shan mountain ranges, near Xinminbao, in the west of Gansu. These included two vertebrae of about eleven centimetres in length and a dermal spine base. [1]
The type species is Stegosaurides excavatus, formally described by Bohlin in 1953. The generic name combines Stegosaurus with the Greek ~eides, "-shaped", in reference to the presumed similarity with the vertebrae of Stegosaurus. The specific name means "hollowed out" in Latin and refers to two large depressions, one each on either side of the spine base. [1] It is currently considered a nomen dubium as the material is so limited.
Bohlin placed Stegosaurides in the Stegosauria. [1] However, later authors often presumed it represented a member of the Ankylosauria, in an indeterminate position. [2] The fossils resemble vertebrae of both groups in having strongly elevated diapophyses, but are more ankylosaur-like in that the neural arch is moderately tall. Uncertainty over the precise age of the Xinminbao Group adds to the difficulty of determining the affinities. Usually it is given as Early Cretaceous when both stegosaurs and ankylosaurs were present, but sometimes as Late Cretaceous when stegosaurs were probably extinct. [3]
Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order 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 early Jurassic Period, 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 more basal ankylosaurs are known from the Australia-Antarctica region during the Cretaceous.
Kentrosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania. The type species is K. aethiopicus, named and described by German palaeontologist Edwin Hennig in 1915. Often thought to be a "primitive" member of the Stegosauria, several recent cladistic analyses find it as more derived than many other stegosaurs, and a close relative of Stegosaurus from the North American Morrison Formation within the Stegosauridae.
Microceratus is a genus of small ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period in Asia. It walked on two legs, had short front arms, a characteristic ceratopsian frill and beak-like mouth, and was around 2 feet (0.6 m) long. It was one of the first ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs, along with Psittacosaurus in Mongolia.
Crichtonsaurus is a dubious genus of herbivorous ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now China. It was named after Michael Crichton, the author of the famed dinosaur novel Jurassic Park.
Pinacosaurus is a genus of ankylosaurid thyreophoran dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, mainly in Mongolia and China.
Wuerhosaurus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of China and Mongolia. As such, it was one of the last genera of stegosaurians known to have existed, since most others lived in the late Jurassic.
Asiaceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Early-Late Cretaceous. The type species, A. salsopaludalis is known from Uzbekistan, while A. sulcidens is known from China and Mongolia.
Sauroplites is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.
Hoplitosaurus was a genus of armored dinosaur related to Polacanthus. It was named from a partial skeleton found in the ?Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Lakota Formation of Custer County, South Dakota. It is an obscure genus which has been subject to some misinterpretation of its damaged remains. Although there was a push to synonymize it with Polacanthus in the late 1980s-early 1990s, Hoplitosaurus has been accepted as a valid albeit poorly known genus in more recent reviews.
Chiayusaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from teeth found in China and possibly also South Korea. Two species have been named for this obscure genus, though only the type, C. lacustris, is still seen as valid. It was originally named as Chiayüsaurus, but the ICZN does not permit special characters, so the name was corrected to Chiayusaurus. The obsolete name can still be seen in older sources, though. As a sauropod, Chiayusaurus would have been a large, quadrupedal herbivore.
Stegosauria is a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, predominantly in what is now North America, Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Their geographical origins are unclear; the earliest unequivocal stegosaurian, Huayangosaurus taibaii, lived in China.
Stegosauridae is a clade of thyreophoran dinosaurs within the suborder Stegosauria. The clade is defined as all species of dinosaurs more closely related to Stegosaurus than Huayangosaurus. The name ‘Stegosauridae’ is thus a stem-based name taken from the well-represented genus – Stegosaurus. Fossil evidence of stegosaurids, dating from the Middle Jurassic through the Early Cretaceous, have been recovered from North America, Eurasia and Africa.
Heishansaurus, meaning "Heishan lizard" after the area in China where it was discovered, is the name given to a dubious genus of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur, probably belonging to the Ankylosauridae.
Peishansaurus was a genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 85-72 million years ago.
Suzhousaurus is a genus of large therizinosauroid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China. The genus is known from two specimens discovered on the Xiagou Formation and Zhonggou Formation—which are situated in the Xinminbao Group. These findings were made during field-works in 1999 and 2004. Though Suzhousaurus is known from these two specimens, an earlier named and described therizinosauroid from the adjacent basin, "Nanshiungosaurus" bohlini, may be synonymous with the former. However, Suzhousaurus can not be compared to this species due to non-overlapping material and the loss of the same. Moreover, this synonymy will result in Suzhousaurus bohlini with "N". bohlini having priority.
Miragaia is a long-necked stegosaurid dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in Upper Jurassic rocks in Portugal and possibly also Wyoming, United States. Miragaia has the longest neck known for any stegosaurian, which included at least seventeen vertebrae.
Chiayusuchus is an extinct genus of stomatosuchid crocodylomorph. Fossils have been found from the Xinminbao Group in Gansu, China. It existed during the Barremian and Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It was in the same family as the large, flat-snouted crocodilian Stomatosuchus.
Alcovasaurus, alternatively known as Miragaia longispinus, is a genus of herbivorous thyreophoran dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic. It was found in the Morrison Formation of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. The type species is Stegosaurus longispinus, later given the genus Alcovasaurus, and in 2019 recombined as Miragaia longispinus.
This timeline of stegosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the stegosaurs, the iconic plate-backed, spike-tailed herbivorous eurypod dinosaurs that predominated during the Jurassic period. The first scientifically documented stegosaur remains were recovered from Early Cretaceous strata in England during the mid-19th century. However, they would not be recognized as a distinct group of dinosaurs until Othniel Charles Marsh described the new genus and species Stegosaurus armatus in 1877, which he regarded as the founding member of the Stegosauria. This new taxon originally included all armored dinosaurs. It was not until 1927 that Alfred Sherwood Romer implemented the modern use of the name Stegosauria as specifically pertaining to the plate-backed and spike-tailed dinosaurs.
Spicomellus is an extinct genus of herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived in the supercontinent Gondwana during the Middle Jurassic Period. The type and only known species is Spicomellus afer, named and described in 2021. Its remains were found in the third subunit of the El Mers Group (Bathonian-Callovian), near Boulahfa, south of Boulemane, Fès-Meknès, Morocco. The genus name means "spiked collar", from the Latin 'spica' meaning spike, and 'mellum' meaning spiked dog collar and the specific name 'afer' means "the African".