Ankylosaur (?Hylaeosaurus) remains from Germany

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com

A new paper in PLoS ONE:

Sven Sachs & Jahn J. Hornung (2013)
Ankylosaur Remains from the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) of
Northwestern Germany.
PLoS ONE 8(4): e60571.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060571
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060571


A fragmentary cervico-pectoral lateral spine and partial humerus of an
ankylosaur from the Early Cretaceous (early Valanginian) of Gronau in
Westfalen, northwestern Germany, are described. The spine shows
closest morphological similarities to the characteristic cervical and
pectoral spines of Hylaeosaurus armatus from the late Valanginian of
England. An extensive comparison of distal humeri among thyreophoran
dinosaurs supports systematic differences in the morphology of the
distal condyli between Ankylosauria and Stegosauria and a referral of
the Gronau specimen to the former. The humerus fragment indicates a
rather small individual, probably in the size range of H. armatus, and
both specimens are determined herein as ?Hylaeosaurus sp.. A short
overview of other purported ankylosaur material from the
Berriasian-Valanginian of northwest Germany shows that, aside from the
material described herein, only tracks can be attributed to this clade
with confidence at present.