''Niobrarasaurus'' (meaning "Niobrara lizard") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

nodosaurid Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period in what is now North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Description Nodosaurids, like their close relatives the ankylosaurids, wer ...

ankylosaur Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

which lived during the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

87 to 82 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the

Niobrara Formation The Niobrara Formation , also called the Niobrara Chalk, is a geologic formation in North America that was deposited between 87 and 82 million years ago during the Coniacian, Santonian, and Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous. It is compose ...

, in western Kansas, which would have been near the middle of Western Interior Sea during the Late Cretaceous. It was a

, an

without a clubbed tail. It was closely related to ''

Nodosaurus ''Nodosaurus'' (meaning "knobbed lizard") is a genus of herbivorous nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, the fossils of which are found exclusively in the Frontier Formation in Wyoming. Description ''Nodosaurus'' grew ...

''. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, ''Niobrarasaurus coleii'', was discovered and collected in 1930 by a geologist named Virgil Cole. It was originally described by Mehl in 1936 and named ''Hierosaurus coleii''. It was then re-described as a new genus by Carpenter ''et al.'' in 1995. In 2002 the type specimen was transferred to the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hays, Kansas. It has been estimated to be 5 meters (16 feet) in length and around 227-453 kg (500-1.000 lbs) according to

Thomas Holtz Thomas Richard Holtz Jr. (born September 13, 1965) is an American vertebrate palaeontologist, author, and principal lecturer at the University of Maryland's Department of Geology. He has published extensively on the phylogeny, morphology, ecomorp ...

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

gave a higher estimation of 6.5 meters (21.3 ft) and 4 tonnes (8.800 lbs).

References

* Carpenter, K., D. Dilkes, and D. B. Weishampel. 1995. The dinosaurs of the Niobrara Chalk Formation (upper Cretaceous, Kansas), Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(2): 275–297. * Carpenter, K. and Everhart, M. J. 2007. Skull of the ankylosaur ''Niobrarasaurus coleii'' (Ankylosauria: Nodosauridae) from the Smoky Hill Chalk (Coniacian) of western Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 110(1/2): 1-9 * Cole, V. B. 2007. Field notes regarding the 1930 discovery of the type specimen of ''Niobrarasaurus coleii'', Gove County, Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 110(1/2): 132–134. * Everhart, M. J. 2004. Notice of the transfer of the holotype specimen of ''Niobrarasaurus coleii'' (Ankylosauria; Nodosauridae) to the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 107(3-4): 173–174. * Everhart, M. J. and S. A. Hamm. 2005. A new nodosaur specimen (Dinosauria: Nodosauridae) from the Smoky Hill Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of western Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 108(1/2): 15–21. * Liggett, G. A. 2005. A review of the dinosaurs from Kansas. Kansas Academy of Science. Transactions 108(1/2): 1–14. * Mehl, M. G. 1931. Aquatic dinosaur from the Niobrara of western Kansas. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 42: 326–327. * Mehl, M. G. 1936. Hierosaurus coleii: a new aquatic dinosaur from the Niobrara Cretaceous of Kansas. Denison University Bulletin, Journal of the Scientific Laboratory 31: 1-20, 3 pls.

External links

''Niobrarasaurus''
from the Oceans of Kansas website Nodosaurids Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Fossil taxa described in 1995 Coniacian genus first appearances Santonian genus extinctions Taxa named by Kenneth Carpenter Taxa named by David B. Weishampel Ornithischian genera {{Ankylosaurian stub

See also

References

External links