Texasetes

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Texasetes
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Suborder:	Thyreophora
Infraorder:	Ankylosauria
Family:	?Nodosauridae
Genus:	Texasetes
Species:	T. pleurohalio

Binomial name

Texasetes pleurohalio
Coombs, 1995

Texasetes (Coombs, 1995) is an ankylosaur from the late Lower Cretaceous of North America. This poorly known genus has been recovered from the Paw Paw Formation (late Albian) near Haslet, Tarrant County, Texas, which has also produced the nodosaurid ankylosaur Pawpawsaurus.

1 Discovery and species
2 Classification
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Discovery and species

The holotype and only known specimen (USNM 337987) consists of portions of the scapulocoracoid and pelvis, elements from the fore- and hindlimbs, vertebrae, osteoderms, a cranial fragment, and one tooth. These remains were originally mistaken for those of a sauropod by their collector, M. K. Brett-Surman, but were later recognized as an ankylosaurian by Walter P. Coombs, which he named Texasetes pleurohalio. Vickaryous et. al. (2004) and Coombs (1995) describe Texasetes as having a horizontally oriented ilium, an imperforate acetabulum, and "characteristically anklyosaur scapula morphology, including a prominent acromion and prespinous fossa."

[edit] Classification

However, Lee (1996) has questioned whether this material is diagnostic and suggests Texasetes is likely a synonym of Pawpawsaurus. Coombs assigned the specimen to the family Nodosauridae, but Vickaryous et. al. consider it Ankylosauria incertae sedis. Texasetes ("Texas resident") is estimated to have been 2.5-3 meters in length.

[edit] References

Coombs, W. P. 1995. A nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(2):298-312.
Lee, Y.-N. 1996. A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Paw Paw Formation (late Albian) of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16:232-245.
Vickaryous, Maryanska, and Weishampel 2004. Chapter Seventeen: Ankylosauria. in The Dinosauria (2nd edition), Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H., editors. University of California Press.