Animantarx
Name:
Animantarx
(Living citadel).
Phonetic: An-e-man-tarks.
Named By: K. Carpenter, J. I. Kirkland,
D. L. Burge & J. Bird - 1999.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Nodosauridae.
Species: A. ramaljonesi
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Skull about 25 centimetres long. Body
length uncertain due to lack of remains, but comparison to other
nodosaurs suggests up to about 3 meters for the total body length.
Known locations: USA, Utah - Cedar Mountain
Formation, Messentuchit Member.
Time period: Albian/Cenomanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Lower jaw, back of the
skull and some cervical (neck) and dorsal (back) vertebrae.
While
Animantarx may not be the best known nodosaurid
dinosaur, it is a
contender for having one of the coolest dinosaur names. Unfortunately
Animantarx is only known by an incomplete skull,
lower jaw and some
vertebrae, which means that reconstructions are reliant upon other
nodosaur parts and a best guess by the reconstructions. Fortunately
nodosaurs tend to be quite similar in their general appearance,
being squat, quadrupedal and having a covering of bony armour
plates along the back and sides of their body with possible large
spikes around the shoulders. In this respect nodosaurs resembled
their more distant relatives the ankylosaurs, though nodosaurs lacked
their tail clubs, and it’s reasonable to assume that Animantarx
did
not have a tail club either.
Animantarx
come from the
Cedar Mountain Formation which is also home to other dinosaurs such as
Gastonia,
Cedarpelta
and Peloroplites,
the latter two actually
coming from the same Mussentuchit Member as Animantarx,
suggesting
that there may have shared the same habitats at the same time.
Sauropelta
is also thought to be in the Cedar Mountain Formation,
but later thinking suggests that these fossils might belong to
Peloroplites.
Aside from these armoured dinosaurs, Animantarx
may
have lived alongside sauropods like Abydosaurus
and ornithopods like
Tenontosaurus,
Eolambia
and Zephyrosaurus.
The
type species name A.
ramaljonesi is in honour of Ramal Jones who discovered the
first
Animantarx remains. Ramal’s wife Carol, had the
type species of
Eolambia named after her.
Animantarx
has been considered to be a close relative to the better known
Edmontonia.
Further reading
- Ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) of the Cedar Mountain
Formation, Utah, and their stratigraphic distribution. In:
Gillette, D. (Ed.), K. Carpenter, J. I. Kirkland,
D. L. Burge & J. Bird - 1999.
- Phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosauria. In: Carpenter, K.
(Ed.), Kenneth Carpenter - 2001.
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