Parksosaurus
Name:
Parksosaurus
(Park’s lizard).
Phonetic: Parks-o-sore-us.
Named By: C. M. Sternberg - 1937.
Synonyms: Thescelosaurus warreni.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda.
Species: P. warreni (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 2.5 meters long.
Known locations: Canada, Alberta - Horseshoe
Cnayon Formation.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and partial post
cranial fossils.
Parksosaurus
was first described by William Parks as a species of Thescelosaurus
in
1926, but in 1937 Charles M. Sternberg reclassified it as a
distinct genus. Sternberg chose the name Parksosaurus
which means
Park’s lizard in recognition of the initial work done by William
Parks. Parksosaurus and Thescelosaurus
together are proof that even
in the latest Cretaceous there was still an ecological niche for small
and swift herbivorous dinosaurs that had still not been filled by
hadrosaurs
or ceratopsians,
two of the most common herbivorous
dinosaurs at this time.
Parksosaurus
is usually treated as a hypsilophodont dinosaur (relative of
Hypsilophodon),
and as with others of its kind, swift speed and
agility were key to the survival of the individual. With this in
mind, the larger dinosaurian predators of the time such as large
tyrannosaurs
like adult Albertosaurus
and Tyrannosaurus
probably did
not even bother with smaller dinosaurs like Parksosaurus.
However,
troodonts, such as the Troodon
genus itself would themselves have
been swift and deadly, and certainly capable of taking down a
Parksosaurus, especially from an ambush.
Further reading
- Classification of Thescelosaurus, with a
description of a new
species. - Proceedings of the Geological Society of America
1936:375. - C. M. Sternberg - 1937.
- Redescription of the skull and mandible of Parksosaurus
from the
Late Cretaceous with comments on the family Hypsilophodontidae
(Ornithischia). - Life Sciences Contribution, Royal Ontario
Museum 89: 1–21. - Peter M. Galton - 1973.
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