Alaskacephale

Taxobox|
name = "Alaskacephale"


image width = 300px
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Marginocephalia
infraordo = Pachycephalosauria
familia = Pachycephalosauridae
genus = "Alaskacephale"
species = "A. gangloffi"
binomial = "Alaskacephale gangloffi"
binomial_authority = Sullivan, 2006

"Alaskacephale" was a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous (around 70 to 80 million years ago).

"Alaskacephale" was named by Robert Sullivan in 2006. The genus name refers to Alaska, where the fossil was found in the Prince Creek Formation. The species name, "gangloffi", honors paleontologist Roland Gangloff. The only known specimen of "A. gangloffi" is the holotype, a nearly complete left squamosal with a characteristic array of polygonal nodes. The dimensions of this bone suggest that "A. gangloffi" was about half the size of "Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis" or three quarters the size of "Prenocephale prenes", and about the same size as "Prenocephale edmontonensis" and "Prenocephale brevis" (Gangloff "et al". 2005).

The specimen was previously described by Gangloff "et al". (2005) as an unnamed pachycephalosaurid, possibly a "Pachycephalosaurus". Gangloff "et al". described the squamosal as having a suture with the quadrate, a feature previously described only in "Pachycephalosaurus". Sullivan (2006) opined that this "suture" is instead a breakage point in both "Alaskacephale" and "Pachycephalosaurus", so it could not be used to unite the two taxa.

References

*Gangloff, R.A., A.R. Fiorillo & D.W. Norton, 2005. The first pachycephalosaurine (Dinosauria) from the Paleo-Arctic of Alaska and its paleogeographic implications. "Journal of Paleontology" 79: 997-1001.
*Sullivan, R.M., 2006. A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). "New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin" 35: 347-365.