Tsagantegia
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| Tsagantegia Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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Tsagantegia (Tumanova, 1993; etymology = "of Tsagan-Teg") is a genus of medium-sized ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Mongolia, during the Cenomanian stage. The holotype specimen (GI SPS N 700/17), a complete skull, was recovered from the Baynshiree Svita Formation (Cenomanian-Santonian), at the Tsagan-Teg ("White Mountain") locality, Dzun-Bayan, in the southeastern Gobi Desert, Mongolia. At this time, the genus is monotypic, including only the type species, T. longicranialis. The skull measures 30 centimeters (12 in) in length, with a maximum width of 25 centimeters (10 in). Vickaryous et al. (2004) note that "Unlike other ankylosaurs, in Tsagantegia the cranial ornamentation is not subdivided into a mosaic of polygons but is amorphous." The quadratojugal and squamosal bosses are poorly developed, in contrast with other ankylosaurs. The skull was long and flat, smooth and bearing small horns.
[edit] Phylogenetics
In their cladistic analysis of the Ankylosauria, Vickaryous et al. (2004) placed Tsagantegia at the base of the Ankylosauridae, as the sister group to all other ankylosaurids.
[edit] References
- Tumanova, T. A. 1993. A new armored dinosaur from southeastern Gobi. Paleontological Journal 27(2):119-125.
- 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.
