Mymoorapelta
Name:
Mymoorapelta
(Mygatt-Moore shield).
Phonetic: My-moor-ah-pel-tah.
Named By: J. I. Kirkland & K.
Carpenter - 1994.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Nodosauridae,
Polacanthinae.
Species: M. maysi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Roughly 3 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Colorado - Morrison
Formation.
Time period: Kimmeridgian to Tithonian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Disarticulated skull and post
cranial remains of three individuals.
At
the time of its description, Mymoorapelta was the
first Jurassic aged
ankylosaur
to be discovered in North America. Since this description
however, other have questioned exactly what kind of ankylosaur
Mymoorapelta was. Mymoorapelta
does not have a tail club like
ankylosaurids, meaning that it was more likely a nodosaur. The
original describers considered Mymoorapelta to be a
polacanthine
nodosaur, while other studies suggest it is a more basal nodosaur.
The
armour of Mymoorapelta was intended to provide
protection from Jurassic
age predators such as Allosaurus
and Saurophaganax,
which may have
left living Mymoorapelta alone in favour of
hunting ‘softer’
targets such as ornithopods like Camptosaurus.
However, evidence
of Allosaurus
attacks on other kinds of armoured dinosaurs such as
Stegosaurus
suggests that nodosaurs like Mymoorapelta may have
also
been bothered by theropods from time to time.
In
1998 another nodosaur named Gargoyleosaurus
was also named from
fossils recovered from the Morrison Formation.
Further reading
- North America's first pre-Cretaceous ankylosaur (Dinosauria)
from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado, J.
I. Kirkland and K. Carpenter - 1994.
- Phylogeny of the ankylosaurian dinosaurs (Ornithischia:
Thyreophora, Richard S. Thompson, Jolyon C. Parish, Susannah
C. R. Maidment & Paul M. Barrett - 2011.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |