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'Nodosauridae' is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Cretaceous Period of what are now North America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Europe.

Contents

Characteristics

Taxonomy

Classification

Phylogeny

References

Characteristics

Diagnostic characteristics for the Nodosauridae include the following: supraorbital boss rounded protuberance, occipital condyle derived from only the basioccipital and ornamentation present on the premaxilla. There is a fourth ambiguous character: the acromion is a knob-like process. All nodosaurids, like other ankylosaurs, may be described as medium-sized to large, heavily-built quadrapedal herbivorous dinosaurs, possessing small denticulate teeth and parasagittal rows of osteoderms (a type of armour) on the dorsolateral surfaces of the body.

Taxonomy

Classification

The family Nodosauridae was erected by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1890, and anchored on the genus ''Nodosaurus''.

★ 'Infraorder Ankylosauria'

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★ 'Family Nodosauridae'

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★ ''Acanthopholis'' (United Kingdom, Western Europe)

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★ ''Animantarx'' (Utah, Western North America)

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★ ''Anoplosaurus'' (England, Northwestern Europe)

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★ ''Edmontonia'' (Alberta, Western North America)

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★ ''Hungarosaurus'' (Hungary, Central-Southern Europe)

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★ ''Liaoningosaurus'' (Liaoning Province, Northeastern China)

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★ ''Niobrarasaurus'' (Kansas, Western North America)

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★ ''Nodosaurus'' (Wyoming and Kansas, Western North America)

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★ ''Panoplosaurus'' (Montana and Alberta, Western North America)

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★ ''Pawpawsaurus'' (Texas, Western North America)

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★ ''Sauropelta'' (Wyoming and Montana, Western North America)

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★ ''Silvisaurus'' (Kansas, Western North America)

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★ ''Stegopelta'' (Wyoming, Western North America)

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★ ''Struthiosaurus'' (Central-Southern Europe)

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★ ''Texasetes'' (Texas, Western North America)

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★ ''Zhejiangosaurus'' (Zhejiang Province, Eastern China)

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★ ''Zhongyuansaurus'' (Henan Province, Central China)

Phylogeny

The clade Nodosauridae was first defined by Paul Sereno in 1998 as "all ankylosaurs closer to ''Panoplosaurus'' than to ''Ankylosaurus''," a definition followed by Vickaryous, Maryanska, and Weishampel in 2004. Vickaryous ''et al.'' considered two genera of nodosaurids to be of uncertain placement (''incertae sedis''): ''Struthiosaurus'' and ''Animantarx'', and considered the most primitive member of the Nodosauridae to be ''Cedarpelta''.^[1]

References

1. Vickaryous, M. K., Maryanska, T., and Weishampel, D. B. (2004). Chapter Seventeen: Ankylosauria. in The Dinosauria (2nd edition), Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H., editors. University of California Press.


★ Carpenter, K. (2001). "Phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosauria." In Carpenter, K., (ed.) 2001: ''The Armored Dinosaurs''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2001, pp. xv-526

★ Osi, Attila (2005). ''Hungarosaurus tormai'', a new ankylosaur (Dinosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Hungary. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(2):370-383, June 2003.