Barsboldia
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| Barsboldia Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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Barsboldia (meaning "of Barsbold", a well-known Mongolian paleontologist) was a genus of large hadrosaurid dinosaur from the early Maastrichtian Nemegt Formation of Ömnogöv', Mongolia. It is known from a partial vertebral column, partial pelvis, and some ribs. This dinosaur may be related to the roughly contemporaneous crested duckbill Hypacrosaurus of North America.
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[edit] Description
Teresa Maryańska and Halszka Osmólska based this genus on ZPAL MgD-1/110, a partial skeleton consisting of nine back vertebrae, nine hip vertebrae, fifteen tail vertebrae, a left ilium, parts of the left and right pubis, several ribs, and a few fragments of the hind limbs, with the backbone largely articulated. The most distinctive features of this skeleton are found in the neural spines. These are very tall, particularly over the hips, and were described as second only to those of Hypacrosaurus altispinus (Lambeosaurus laticaudus another high-spined duckbill, was described the same year, and it is not known how they compare) and the tips of those found in the first few vertebrae of the tail are club-shaped[1] (possibly a sign of old age).[2]
[edit] History
Maryańska and Osmólska described their new genus as a lambeosaurine (or hollow-crested duckbill), the first from the Nemegt Formation, although it lacked a skull. However, the sacrum has a keel along the bottom, a possible lambeosaurine feature,[3] and the bones closely resemble those of Hypacrosaurus.[2][4] With only one partial skeleton known, and no skull, the genus has been considered dubious[3] or a possible lambeosaurine of uncertain placement.[5]
[edit] Paleobiology
As a hadrosaurid, Barsboldia would have been a bipedal/quadrupedal herbivore, eating plants with a sophisticated skull that permitted a grinding motion analogous to chewing, and was furnished with hundreds of continually-replaced teeth. If it was a lambeosaurine, it would have had a hollow crest formed out of expanded skull bones containing the nasal passages, with a function relating to identification by sight and sound.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Maryańska, Teresa; and Osmólska, Halszka (1981). "First lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia". Acta Palaeontologia Polonica 26: 243–255.
- ^ a b Brett-Surman, Michael K. (1989). A revision of the Hadrosauridae (Reptilia:Ornithischia) and their evolution during the Campanian and Maastrichtian. Ph.D. dissertation. Washington, D.C.: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University, 1-272.
- ^ a b Norman, David B.; and Sues, Hans-Dieter (2000). "Ornithopods from Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia", in Benton, Michael J.; Shishkin, Mikhail A.; Unwin, David M.; and Kurochkin, Evgenii N.: The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 462-479. ISBN 0-521-55476-X.
- ^ Glut, Donald F. (1997). "Barsboldia", Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co, 202. ISBN 0-89950-917-7.
- ^ a b Horner, John R.; Weishampel, David B.; and Forster, Catherine A (2004). "Hadrosauridae", in Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press, 438-463. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
[edit] External links
- Barsboldia in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia at Dino Russ's Lair
