Talarurus
Sign in to saveTalarurus ( ; meaning "basket tail" or "wicker tail") is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about 96 million to 89 million years ago. The first remains of Talarurus were discovered in 1948 and later described by the Russian paleontologist Evgeny Maleev with the type species T. plicatospineus. It is known from multiple yet sparse specimens, making it one of the most well known ankylosaurines, along with Pinacosaurus. Elements from the specimens consists of various bones from the body; five skulls have been discovered and assigned to the genus,
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11 sectionsContents
- History of discovery
- Description
- Size and distinguishing traits
- Skull
- Postcranial skeleton
- Classification
- Paleobiology
- Paleoenvironment
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Talarurus ( ; meaning "basket tail" or "wicker tail") is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about 96 million to 89 million years ago. The first remains of Talarurus were discovered in 1948 and later described by the Russian paleontologist Evgeny Maleev with the type species T. plicatospineus. It is known from multiple yet sparse specimens, making it one of the most well known ankylosaurines, along with Pinacosaurus. Elements from the specimens consists of various bones from the body; five skulls have been discovered and assigned to the genus, although the first two were very fragmented.
It was a medium-sized, heavily built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could grow up to long and weighed about , nearly a ton. Like other ankylosaurs it had heavy armour and a club on its tail, limiting its speed. Talarurus is classified as a member of the Ankylosauria, in the Ankylosaurinae, a group of derived ankylosaurs. Talarurus is known from the Bayan Shireh Formation, being likely niche partitioned with Tsagantegia, as indicated by its muzzle, which has a rectangular shape specialized for grazing. These represent the oldest known ankylosaurines from Asia, although they are not very closely related to each other. It appears that the closest relative of Talarurus was Nodocephalosaurus, an ankylosaurin with similar facial osteoderms.