Shamosaurus

Taxobox
name = Shamosaurus
status = Fossil
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous


image_width = 200px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Ankylosauria
familia = Ankylosauridae
genus = "Shamosaurus"
species = "S. scutatus"
binomial = "Shamosaurus scutatus"
binomial_authority = Tumanova, 1983

"Shamosaurus" is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It was an ankylosaurid dinosaur from Mongolia.

"Shamosaurus" and "Gobisaurus"

"Shamosaurus scutatus" shares many cranial similarities with "Gobisaurus domoculus", including a rounded squamosal, large elliptical orbital fenestrae and external nares, a deltoid dorsal profile with a narrow rostrum, quadratojugal protuberances, and caudolaterally directed paroccipital processes. But the two taxa may be distinguished by differences in the length of the maxillary tooth row, an unfused basipterygoid-pterygoid process in "Gobisaurus", the presence on an elongate vomerine premaxillary process in "Gobisaurus", and the presence of cranial sculpting in "Shamosaurus", but not in "Gobisaurus".

References

*Matthew K. Vickaryous, Anthony P. Russell, Philip J. Currie, and Xi-Jin Zhao. 2001. A new ankylosaurid (Dinosauria: Ankylosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous of China, with comments on ankylosaurian relationships. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences/Rev. can. sci. Terre 38(12):1767-1780.
*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.

Links

* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/detail.dsml?Genus=Shamosaurus"Shamosaurus" in the Dino Directory]