Texasetes

Taxobox
name = "Texasetes"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Ankylosauria
familia = ?Nodosauridae
genus = "Texasetes"
genus_authority=Coombs, 1995
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision =
*"T. pleurohalio" Coombs, 1995 (type)

"Texasetes" (meaning "Texas resident") is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur from the late Lower Cretaceous of North America. This poorly known genus has been recovered from the Paw Paw Formation (late Albian) near Haslet, Tarrant County Texas, which has also produced the nodosaurid ankylosaur "Pawpawsaurus". "Texasetes" is estimated to have been 2.5-3 meters (8-10 ft) in length.

Discovery and species

The holotype and only known specimen (USNM 337987) consists of portions of the scapulocoracoid and pelvis, elements from the fore- and hindlimbs, vertebrae, osteoderms, a skull fragment, and one tooth. These remains were originally mistaken for those of a sauropod by their collector, M. K. Brett-Surman, but were later recognized as an ankylosaurian by Walter P. Coombs, which he named "Texasetes pleurohalio". Vickaryous "et al." (2004) and Coombs (1995) describe "Texasetes" as having a horizontally oriented ilium, an imperforate acetabulum, and "characteristically ankylosaur scapula morphology, including a prominent acromion and prespinous fossa."

Classification

However, Lee (1996) has questioned whether this material is diagnostic and suggests "Texasetes" is likely a synonym of "Pawpawsaurus". Coombs assigned the specimen to the family Nodosauridae, but Vickaryous "et al". consider it Ankylosauria "incertae sedis".

References

*Coombs, W. P. 1995. A nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(2):298-312.
*Lee, Y.-N. 1996. A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Paw Paw Formation (late Albian) of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16:232-245.
*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.

External links

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5a786ad.htm "Texasetes" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair