Nodosauridae
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| Nodosaurids Fossil range: Cretaceous |
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 Life restoration of the nodosaurid Edmontonia.
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Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Cretaceous Period of what are now North America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Europe.
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[edit] Characteristics
Diagnostic characteristics for the Nodosauridae include the following: supraorbital boss rounded protuberance, occipital condyle derived from only the basioccipital and ornamentation present on the premaxilla. There is a fourth ambiguous character: the acromion is a knob-like process. All nodosaurids, like other ankylosaurs, may be described as medium-sized to large, heavily-built quadrapedal herbivorous dinosaurs, possessing small denticulate teeth and parasagittal rows of osteoderms (a type of armour) on the dorsolateral surfaces of the body.
[edit] Taxonomy
[edit] Classification
The family Nodosauridae was erected by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1890, and anchored on the genus Nodosaurus.
- Infraorder Ankylosauria
- Family Nodosauridae
- Acanthopholis (United Kingdom, Western Europe)
- Animantarx (Utah, Western North America)
- Anoplosaurus (England, Northwestern Europe)
- Edmontonia (Alberta, Western North America)
- Hungarosaurus (Hungary, Central-Southern Europe)
- Liaoningosaurus (Liaoning Province, Northeastern China)
- Niobrarasaurus (Kansas, Western North America)
- Nodosaurus (Wyoming and Kansas, Western North America)
- Panoplosaurus (Montana and Alberta, Western North America)
- Pawpawsaurus (Texas, Western North America)
- Sauropelta (Wyoming and Montana, Western North America)
- Silvisaurus (Kansas, Western North America)
- Stegopelta (Wyoming, Western North America)
- Struthiosaurus (Central-Southern Europe)
- Texasetes (Texas, Western North America)
- Zhejiangosaurus (Zhejiang Province, Eastern China)
- Zhongyuansaurus (Henan Province, Central China)
- Family Nodosauridae
[edit] Phylogeny
The clade Nodosauridae was first defined by Paul Sereno in 1998 as "all ankylosaurs closer to Panoplosaurus than to Ankylosaurus," a definition followed by Vickaryous, Maryanska, and Weishampel in 2004. Vickaryous et al. considered two genera of nodosaurids to be of uncertain placement (incertae sedis): Struthiosaurus and Animantarx, and considered the most primitive member of the Nodosauridae to be Cedarpelta.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Vickaryous, M. K., Maryanska, T., and Weishampel, D. B. (2004). Chapter Seventeen: Ankylosauria. in The Dinosauria (2nd edition), Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H., editors. University of California Press.
- Carpenter, K. (2001). "Phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosauria." In Carpenter, K., (ed.) 2001: The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2001, pp. xv-526
- Osi, Attila (2005). Hungarosaurus tormai, a new ankylosaur (Dinosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Hungary. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(2):370-383, June 2003.
