English:
Restoration of the armoured dinosaur
Tarchia
(Ankylosauria, Ankylosauridae, Ankylosaurinae). It is an update of a drawing that I first uploaded in 2008.
-
Head:
The new head restoration is mostly based on
PIN
3142/250, a specimen which on occasions have been attributed to
Saichania
, but in 2017 was designated as
Tarchia teresae
.
[1]
-
Armour:
the arrangement of osteoderms in ankylosaurids can be difficult to determine if the osteoderms are not found in place (as in the case of
Ankylosaurus
),
[2]
In some cases, very intact ankylosaur specimens are found with some or most of their osteoderms still in place. Ankylosaurid examples of this include a specimen of
Euoplocephalus
(NHMUK 5161)).
[3]
and a fossil specimen attributed to
Tarchia
, ZPAL MgD I/113 (preserving part of the osteoderm arrangement intact in the dorsal region and a fairly complete tail),
[4]
which is used as a model in the current restoration (it should be noted that ZPAL MgD I/113 differ from other attributed to
Tarchia
and couls represent a different genus).
[5]
Many ankylosaurids had osteoderms forming two bony bands rings around the neck (called the cervical half rings),
[2]
including
Tarchia
..
[6]
As images of cervical half rings from
Tarchia
are not available, and the current restoration is based on those of
Ankylosaurus
.
-
Spikes:
the current restoration of
Tarchia
have small spikes extending from the hip region down along the proximal part of the tail, similar to the skeletal restorations of
Euoplocephalus
by Paul (while his restoration of
Pinacosaurus
have larger spikes, all the way from the neck down on the base of the tail).
[7]
The restoration of
Tarchia
with more frugal amount of spikes in
Tarchia
is a guess, based on that ZPAL MgD I/113 preserve a single triangular spike on its tail, indicating it possessed some spikes (Tumanova claim that
Tarchia
possessed "perforated large spines",
[6]
but do not provide details of what they looked like).
References
-
↑
Penkalski P. & Tumanova T. (2017).
"The cranial morphology and taxonomic status of
Tarchia
(Dinosauria: Ankylosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia"
.
Cretaceous Research
70
: p. 117-127
-
↑
a
b
Arbour V.M. & Mallon J.C. (2017).
"Unusual cranial and postcranial anatomy in the archetypal ankylosaur
Ankylosaurus magniventris
"
.
FACETS
2
(2): p. 764-794
-
↑
Brown C.M.
et.al.
(2017).
"An Exceptionally Preserved Three-Dimensional Armored Dinosaur Reveals Insights into Coloration and Cretaceous Predator-Prey Dynamics"
.
Current Biology
27
(16): p. 2514-2521
-
↑
Arbour V.M., Lech-Hernes N.L., Guldberg T.E., Hurum J.H. & Currie P.J. (2013).
"An ankylosaurid dinosaur from Mongolia with in situ armour and keratinous scale impressions"
.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
58
(1): p. 55-64
-
↑
[1]
-
↑
a
b
[2]
-
↑
Paul G.S.
Dinosaurs: A Field Guide
. (London: A & C Black): p. 233-234.