Tsagantegia
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| Tsagantegia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 90 Ma |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Ankylosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Ankylosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Tsagantegia Tumanova, 1993 |
| Species: | †T. longicranialis |
| Binomial name | |
| Tsagantegia longicranialis Tumanova, 1993 |
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Tsagantegia (
/ˌsɑːɡɑːnˈteɪɡiə/; meaning "of Tsagan-Teg"; Tumanova, 1993) 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 Bayan Shireh 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.
[edit] Description
The skull measures 30 centimetres (12 in) in length, with a maximum width of 25 centimetres (9.8 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.
