Measuring between 13 and 16 feet in length and 3.5 feet tall, Akainacephalus jonhnsoni is slightly smaller than its more well known cousin, Ankylosaurus.
(Andrey Atuchin and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science)
Posted on 07/20/2018 11:05:23 AM PDT by ETL
Researchers have unearthed a new armored dinosaur in Utah, a new species of ankylosaur, known as Akainacephalus johnsoni.
The catch? It lived on the lost continent known as Laramidia.
A. johnsoni, a member of the ankylosaurid family, lived 76 million years ago in what is now southern Utah, but was once a land mass known as Laramidia, an island continent that split North America in two. Eventually, the sea shrank and the two parts combined to form what is now known as North America. ..."
Measuring between 13 and 16 feet in length and 3.5 feet tall, Akainacephalus jonhnsoni is slightly smaller than its more well known cousin, Ankylosaurus, which measured between 23 and 35 feet in length.
Similar to the Ankylosaurus, Akainacephalus had bony armor covering its entire body and had spikes and horns on its skull.
The fossilized remains contain a complete skull, a significant part of the vertebral column, "including a complete tail club," as well as several parts of its fore and hind limbs and "bony body armor that includes two neck rings and spiked armor plates."
The fossil, found in 2008, is the "most complete skeleton" of an ankylosaurid dinosaur found in the southwestern U.S., the statement added.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“Ankylosaurus[nb 1] is a genus of armored dinosaur.
Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of the non-avian dinosaurs.
It was named by Barnum Brown in 1908; the only species in the genus is A. magniventris. The genus name means “fused lizard”, and the specific name means “great belly”.
A handful of specimens have been excavated to date, but a complete skeleton has not been discovered.
Though other members of Ankylosauria are represented by more extensive fossil material, Ankylosaurus is often considered the archetypal member of its group, despite having some unusual features.
Possibly the largest-known ankylosaurid, Ankylosaurus is estimated to have been between 6 and 8 metres (19.7 and 26.2 ft) long and to have weighed between 4.8 and 8 tonnes (5.3 and 8.8 short tons).
It was quadrupedal, with a broad, robust body. It had a wide, low skull, with two horns pointing backward from the back of the head, and two horns below these that pointed backward and down.
Unlike other ankylosaurs, its nostrils faced sideways rather than towards the front. The front part of the jaws was covered in a beak, with rows of small, leaf-shaped teeth farther behind it.
It was covered in armor plates, or osteoderms, with bony half-rings covering the neck, and had a large club on the end of its tail.
Bones in the skull and other parts of the body were fused, increasing their strength, and this feature is the source of the genus name.
Ankylosaurus is a member of the family Ankylosauridae, and its closest relatives appear to be Anodontosaurus and Euoplocephalus.
Ankylosaurus is thought to have been a slow-moving animal, able to make quick movements when necessary. Its broad muzzle indicates it was a non-selective browser.
Sinuses and nasal chambers in the snout may have been for heat and water balance or may have played a role in vocalization. The tail club is thought to have been used in defense against predators or in intraspecific combat.
Ankylosaurus has been found in the Hell Creek, Lance, Scollard, Frenchman, and Ferris formations, but appears to have been rare in its environment.
Although it lived alongside a nodosaurid ankylosaur, their ranges and ecological niches do not appear to have overlapped, and Ankylosaurus may have inhabited upland areas.
Ankylosaurus also lived alongside dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus
I’ve seen some of these walking around downtown Salt Lake City.
Wow. Never seen that before.
Thanks for posting it.
This is great!
It looks like a long legged, spiky backed, Boxer-headed Crocodile. aka Flying Purple People Eater.
*ping*
Nice map. Sorta looks like to me that those floating continents would negate the meteor strike theory that formed the Caribben. Looks like they just floated into place around it. Isn’t that the one that killed on the dinos? So...
Funny how millions of years ago, a whole bunch of now North America was under water, and yet folks today think humankind is to blame if it happens again...
LOL, I mis-read it as... A johnsoni member:-) Guess it’s dirty mind Friday.
‘A. johnsoni, a member of the ankylosaurid family, lived 76 million years ago’
how can this be since we learned here that the earth is but 6000 years old...?
Both can be true, right?
You can read a book, be on page 1, minutes into the story, but the book has thousands of years of history that got it to that point?
(I do NOT believe the 6000 silliness, but there is a credible defense of it.)
If an entity could create the universe, that same entity could just as easily create the universe with a history as to how it got to the starting point.
Picture the universe as a “Matrix-style” computer simulation created by an all-knowing programmer. It would have the rules for running, but it would also have a set of initial conditions.
So, the initial conditions make the simulation appear to be 4 billions years old, but the simulation has only been running 6000 years.
(I believe NONE of this.)
Lookie, some stupid imbecile put "piltdownman" into the keywords. We're all very impressed, just not in the way the moron seems to think. Thanks ETL.
IOW, it's not a credible defense. :^)
Thanks fieldmarshaldj. I saw the topic before I saw your ping! :^o BTW, I think I picked up a case of Laramidia during shore leave one time.
I believe , could be wrong , but I think that most of southern Florida is an impact crater from something that it slammed into millions of years ago.
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