Biology:Machairoceratops

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Short description: Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Machairoceratops
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 80.8 Ma
Machairoceratops.PNG
Reconstructed skull
Scientific classification e
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Suborder: Ceratopsia
Family: Ceratopsidae
Subfamily: Centrosaurinae
Genus: Machairoceratops
Lund et al., 2016
Type species
Machairoceratops cronusi
Lund et al., 2016

Machairoceratops (meaning "bent sword horned face"), previously known as the "Wahweap centrosaurine B", is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Wahweap Formation (late Campanian stage) of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, southern Utah, United States .[1]

Discovery

Map showing where the holotype was found

It contains a single species, M. cronusi, first described and named in 2016 by Eric K. Lund, Patrick M. O’Connor, Mark A. Loewen and Zubair A. Jinnah. The generic name is derived from Greek machairis, meaning "bent sword", in reference to its unique frill ornamentation showing two forward curving horns on the frill's uppermost part, and Latinized Greek ceratops, meaning "horned-face", which is a common suffix for ceratopsian genera names. The specific name cronusi refers to Cronus, a Greek god who deposed his father Uranus by castrating him with a sickle or scythe based on the mythology, and as such is shown carrying a curved bladed weapon. Machairoceratops is known solely from the holotype UMNH VP 20550, found in 2006, which is housed at the Natural History Museum of Utah. It is represented by a partial skull including two curved and elongate eyesocket horncores, the left jugal bone, a nearly complete but slightly deformed braincase, the left squamosal bone, and a parietal bone complex and its unique horn ornamentation, all collected in association.[1]

Phylogeny

Reconstruction
Left squamosal bone

Lund et al. (2016) tested the position of Machairoceratops within Centrosaurinae by performing maximum parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic species level analyses. The maximum parsimony analysis yielded a large polytomy at the base of Centrosaurinae, with only Centrosaurini, most of Pachyrhinosaurini (Einiosaurus, Wendiceratops and Pachyrostra), and a clade formed by Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops being resolved. The Bayesian analysis yielded a fully resolved topology which is shown below.[1]

Ceratopsidae 

Chasmosaurinae

 Centrosaurinae 

Machairoceratops cronusi

Albertaceratops nesmoi

Diabloceratops eatoni

Avaceratops lammersi

Nasutoceratops titusi

Centrosaurini

Pachyrhinosaurini

The cladogram presented below follows a more recent phylogenetic analysis by Chiba et al. (2017):[2]

Centrosaurinae

Diabloceratops eatoni

Machairoceratops cronusi

Nasutoceratopsini

Avaceratops lammersi (ANSP 15800)

MOR 692

CMN 8804

Nasutoceratops titusi

Malta new taxon

Xenoceratops foremostensis

Sinoceratops zhuchengensis

Wendiceratops pinhornensis

Albertaceratops nesmoi

Medusaceratops lokii

Eucentrosaura

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Eric K. Lund; Patrick M. O’Connor; Mark A. Loewen; Zubair A. Jinnah (2016). "A New Centrosaurine Ceratopsid, Machairoceratops cronusi gen et sp. nov., from the Upper Sand Member of the Wahweap Formation (Middle Campanian), Southern Utah". PLOS ONE 11 (5): e0154403. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154403. PMID 27192148. Bibcode2016PLoSO..1154403L. 
  2. Kentaro Chiba; Michael J. Ryan; Federico Fanti; Mark A. Loewen; David C. Evans (2018). "New material and systematic re-evaluation of Medusaceratops lokii (Dinosauria, Ceratopsidae) from the Judith River Formation (Campanian, Montana)". Journal of Paleontology 92 (2): 272–288. doi:10.1017/jpa.2017.62. 

Wikidata ☰ Q24091673 entry