Pawpawsaurus

Taxobox
name = "Pawpawsaurus"
status = Fossil
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Ankylosauria
familia = Nodosauridae
genus = "Pawpawsaurus"
species = "P. campbelli"
binomial = "Pawpawsaurus campbelli"
binomial_authority = Lee, 1996

"Pawpawsaurus", meaning "Pawpaw Lizard", [Lee, Y.-N. (1996). A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Paw Paw Formation (Late Albian) of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16:232-345] is a nodosaurid ankylosaur from the Cretaceous (late Albian) of Tarrant County, Texas, discovered in May 1992. The only species yet assigned to this taxon, "Pawpawsaurus campbelli," is based on a complete skull (lacking mandibles) from the marine Paw Paw Formation (Wachita Group). The Paw Paw Formation has produced another nodosaurid, "Texasetes pleurohalio" (Coombs, 1995), which may prove to be a senior synonym of "Pawpawsaurus". This is the only nodosaurid known to have possessed the bony eyelids commonly found in ankylosaurids. The skull of "Pawpawsaurus" bears some notable similarities to that of "Silvisaurus", such as the presence of teeth in the premaxilla and the restriction of the osseous secondary palate to the rostral portion of the palatal region. Based on the dimensions of the skull, "Pawpawsaurus" is believed to have been approximately 4.5 meters in length. Vickaryous et al. (2004) have stated that "Sauropelta edwardsorum", "Silvisaurus condrayi", and "Pawpawsaurus campbelli" form a basal polytomy nested deep to "Cedarpelta"."

References

*Coombs, W. P., Jr. 1995. A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15:298-312.

*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.naturalworlds.org/pawpawsaurus/index.htm Pawpawsaurus web site]