Silvisaurus

Taxobox
name = "Silvisaurus"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Ankylosauria
familia = Nodosauridae
genus = "Silvisaurus"
genus_authority = Eaton, 1960
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"S. condrayi" Eaton, 1960 (type)

"Silvisaurus", from the Latin silva "wood" and Greek saurus "lizard", is a nodosaurid ankylosaur from the middle Cretaceous of Kansas.

Discovery and species

The holotype was recovered by T. H. Eaton from the University of Kansas from exposures of the Dakota Formation (late Aptian-early Cenomanian) in Kansas, and consists of an incomplete skeleton with skull and sacrum. To date, "Silvisaurus" includes only the type species, "S. condrayi".

Paleobiology

Based on these remains, the animal is estimated to have been approximately four meters in length (13 ft). Its skull measures 33 centimeters in length (13 in) and is 25 centimeters wide (10 in). The osseous secondary palate is poorly developed in "Silvisaurus", the dentary includes at least twenty-five teeth, the basal tubera of the basiocciptial are bulbous, and each premaxilla holds eight to nine teeth. Besides the usual rounded and polygonal osteoderms, "Silvisaurus" may have also sported bony spines on its shoulders and tail.

Classification

This taxon represents a relatively primitive nodosaurid, and Vickaryous et al. (2004) have stated that "Sauropelta edwardsorum", "Silvisaurus condrayi", and "Pawpawsaurus campbelli" form a basal polytomy nested deep to "Cedarpelta"."

References

*Eaton, T. H., Jr. 1960. A new armored dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Kansas. The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions: Vertebrata 8:1-24.
*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.