Alaskacephale

Alaskacephale
Temporal range: Late Campanian, 80–69 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Ornithischia
Suborder: †Pachycephalosauria
Family: †Pachycephalosauridae
Genus: †Alaskacephale
Sullivan, 2006
Species: † A. gangloffi
Binomial name
Alaskacephale gangloffi
Sullivan, 2006

Alaskacephale was a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in the late Campanian to Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous (around 80 to 69 million years ago).

Alaskacephale was named by Robert Sullivan in 2006.[1] The genus name refers to Alaska, where the fossil was found in the Prince Creek Formation. The species name, gangloffi, honors paleontologist Roland Gangloff. The only known specimen of A. gangloffi is the holotype, a nearly complete left squamosal with a characteristic array of polygonal nodes. The dimensions of this bone suggest that A. gangloffi was about half the size of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis or three quarters the size of Prenocephale prenes, and about the same size as Prenocephale edmontonensis and Prenocephale brevis.[2]

The specimen was previously described by Gangloff et al. (2005) as an unnamed pachycephalosaurid, possibly a Pachycephalosaurus. Gangloff et al. described the squamosal as having an interdigitated suture with the quadrate, a feature previously described only in Pachycephalosaurus. Sullivan (2006) opined that this "suture" is instead a breakage point in both Alaskacephale and Pachycephalosaurus, so it could not be used to unite the two taxa.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sullivan, RM (2006). "A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)" (PDF). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin (35): 347–365.
  2. ↑ Gangloff, R.A.; A.R. Fiorillo; D.W. Norton (2005). "The first pachycephalosaurine (Dinosauria) from the Paleo-Arctic of Alaska and its paleogeographic implications.". Journal of Paleontology 79: 997–1001. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0997:tfpdft]2.0.co;2.
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