Torosaurus
Encyclopedia : T : TO : TOR : Torosaurus
Torosaurus [link] ("bull (or perforated(!)) lizard") was a ceratopsid dinosaur species. It had the biggest head of any land animal known, reaching 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) in length — at least until a 10 foot (3 meter) skull of a Pentaceratops was discovered.
About half the body of the Torosaurus was head, excluding the tail. In total, it was about 25 feet (7.6 meters) long and weighed 8 to 9 tons (7 to 8 tonnes). It appeared in the sixth and last episode of Walking with Dinosaurs.
Discoveries and species
Two Torosaurus skulls were discovered in southeastern Wyoming by John Bell Hatcher in 1891, and it was subsequently named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1891, two years after Triceratops.Remains have since been found in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah and Saskatchewan. Some fragmentary remains which may be Torosaurus have been found in the Big Bend Region of Texas. Fossil evidence suggests it may have been uncommon; remains of its relative Triceratops are more frequently found.
Torosaurus species:
- T. latus Marsh, 1891 (type species)
- T. gladius Marsh, 1891 (=T. latus)
- T. utahensis Lawson, 1976 (=T. latus)
Enigma of the name
There is some uncertainty of name - did the root Toro' come from Latin 'taurus' (bull), in which case why is it not 'Taurosaurus' or is it related to an Greek root for piercing, hence 'Perforated Lizard' named for its skull fenestrae in contrast to the solid frill of its close relative Triceratops...
Classification
Torosaurus belonged to the subfamily known as Chasmosaurinae or Ceratopsinae within the family Ceratopsidae within the Ceratopsia (the name is Ancient Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period, which ended roughly 65 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this era.Diet
Torosaurus, like all Ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", and so it is likely that this dinosaur fed on the predominant plants of the era: ferns, cycads and conifers. It would have used its sharp Ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.References
- Dodson, P. (1996). The Horned Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Pinceton, New Jersey, pp. xiv-346
External Links
- http://www.dinosaurvalley.com/groups.html
- http://208.164.121.55/reference/dinosaur/dodson.htm
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.