Open Paleo

Alaskacephale

Sullivan, 2006 a-LASS-kuh-SEF-uh-lee

Named for Alaska, where it was discovered, combined with Greek 'kephale' meaning 'head', referring to its pachycephalosaurid dome-headed nature.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Alaskacephale is an extinct genus of pachycephalosaurid, a group of dome-headed, herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs, that lived during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now northern Alaska. The genus is one of the few known Arctic dinosaurs and was found in the Prince Creek Formation, which preserves a menagerie of fossils. The only known specimen, a squamosal bone, was found in 1999 and later described in 2005. However, Alaskacephale was not formally named until the next year.

Diagnosis

  1. Two divergent rows of nodes on the squamosal, converging toward the midline of the skull
  2. Nodes with well-defined polygonal bases and prominent apices

Species

Alaskacephale gangloffi Sullivan, 2006

Type species

Named for Roland Gangloff, who published the earlier 2005 description of the squamosal fossil.

Holotype
UAM AK-493-V-001 , University of Alaska Museum, Earth Science Collections
Material
Nearly complete left squamosal
Horizon
Prince Creek Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
west side of the Colville River, Alaska, United States The holotype was collected as talus from the beach below the bluffs, so its level within the formation is inferred from the exposures above rather than observed in place. Gangloff and colleagues (2005) put the site 24 river km southeast of Ocean Point and 4 river km south of the hadrosaur bone beds.

References

  1. Sullivan, R. M. (2006). A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior 35: 348-365. sullivan2006a
  2. Gangloff, R. A.; Fiorillo, A. R.; Norton, D. W. (2005). The first pachycephalosaurine (Dinosauria) from the Paleo-Arctic of Alaska and its paleogeographic implications. Journal of Paleontology 79(5): 997-1001. Cambridge University Press (CUP). doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0997:tfpdft]2.0.co;2

    Describes the holotype squamosal, UAM AK-493-V-001, and its Colville River site; assigns a late Campanian age from tephra dates on the nearby bone beds.

    gangloff2005a