Gobisaurus

Taxobox|
name = "Gobisaurus"|
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous


image_width = 200px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Ankylosauria
familia = Ankylosauridae
genus = "Gobisaurus"
species = "G. domoculus"
binomial = "Gobisaurus domoculus"
binomial_authority = Vickaryous et al., 2001

"Gobisaurus" (Vickaryous et al. 2001) is an ankylosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Aptian-?Albian) Ulansuhai Formation (Nei Mongol Zizhiqu) of China. The holotype (IVPP V12563) consists of a skull and as yet undescribed postcranial remains. Along with its sister taxon "Shamosaurus", "Gobisaurus" is "nested deep within the ankylosaurid lineage as the first successive outgroup to [the subfamily) Ankylosaurinae" (Vickaryous et. al., 2004). This is a large ankylosaur, with a skull measuring 46 cm. in length and 45 cm. across. The name means "Gobi (Desert) lizard," referring to its discovery by the Sino-Soviet Expeditions (1959–1960) in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The genus is monotypic, containing only "G. domoculus".

"Gobisaurus" and "Shamosaurus"

"Gobisaurus domoculus" shares many cranial similarities with "Shamosaurus scutatus", 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.