Ingenia

"Ingenia" Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Profile of "Ingenia" yanshini
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Family:	Oviraptoridae
Genus:	"Ingenia" Barsbold, 1981 preoccupied by Gerlach, 1957
Species
"I." yanshini Barsbold, 1981 (type)

"Ingenia" is a genus of oviraptorid theropod dinosaurs, with one known species, "Ingenia" yanshini. Fossils have been found in several Late Cretaceous-age formations (approximately 70 million years ago) of Mongolia, most prominently in the Bugin Tsav beds of the Nemegt Formation, which has also yielded the holotype of Mononykus olecranus. "Ingenia" is known from only a few specimens, which include only the arms, legs, pelvis, shoulder girdle, and partial skull, and a few vertebrae. Some material referred to as "Ingenia" comes from older formations, but these specimens have not been well described.

Etymology

Skull

Skeleton

The name "Ingenia" derives from the Ingen Khoboor Depression of Bayanhongor Aimak, Mongolia, from whence it was collected, while the specific name yanshini was chosen in honour of academician Aleksandr Leonidovich Yanshin (1911–1999), who was adviser and mentor to the describer Barbsold Rinchen during his time at the Paleontological Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.^[1]

Taxonomy and phylogeny

"Ingenia" belongs to the oviraptorids, as distinguished by a pubis with a forward-curving shaft (among other features), and by the unique shape of the lower jaw with a strongly S-curved jaw margin, short snout, and rounded, fused cranial bones. Some material includes paired sternal plates fused along the midline and bearing a short carina.

Name clash

The name Ingenia is currently occupied by that of a nematode, Ingenia mirabilis Gerlach, 1957, necessitating a replacement name, as mandated by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

References

1. ^ Barsbold, R. (1981). "Bezzubye khishchnye dinozavry Mongolii." [Toothless carnivorous dinosaurs of Mongolia.]. Trudy -- Sovmestnaya Sovetsko-Mongol'skaya Paleontologicheskaya Ekspeditsiya, 15: 28-39, 124. [in Russian, w/ English summary].

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