#minotaurasaurus

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

To my knowledge I was the first to come up with ankylosaur nose balloons, I still very much like this idea. Have this little animation of a tooting Minotaurasaurus.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Minotaurasaurus ramachandrani

By José Carlos Cortés on @ryuukibart

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Name: Minotaurasaurus ramachandrani

Name Meaning: Man-Bull Reptile

First Described: 2009

Described By: Miles & Miles 

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Thyreophora, Eurypoda, Ankylosauria, Ankylosauridae, Ankylosaurinae, Saichania + Zaraapelta Clade

Minotaurasaurus is an Ankylosaurine that might be synonymous with Tarchia, from a place of unknown origin in the Gobi Desert. It probably lived between 75 and 70 million years ago, in the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous, like it’s close relatives. The remains are controversial - it is uncertain where they came from, and they were removed without permission or documentation. It, like other members of its clade, had a shorter, deeper snout, probably as an adaptation for eating more desert-based plantlife. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaurasaurus

Arbour, V. M, & P. J. Currie. 2015. Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985

Shout out goes to @alereiss!

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[alphynix]

Unsolved Paleo Mysteries Month #16 -- Strange Snoots 2: Oddball Ornithiscians

Those extinct horses weren’t the only ancient creatures with unexplained noses. Some dinosaurs had equally weird things going on with their snouts -- and while hadrosaurs' big honkin’ snoots are fairly well-known, there were other ornithischians with their own bizarre nasal anatomy.

Many ceratopsids had an enormous nasal opening forming a giant bony “window” through their snout, with the chasmosaurines like the famous Triceratops having additional bony projections and hollowed regions within these holes. They probably supported some huge elaborate cartilage structures in life, but what they were for is still a mystery. They may have helped with heat dissipation or moisture conservation, aided sound production, provided a highly sensitive sense of smell, housed a vomeronasal organ, held part of an air-filled pneumatic system... or, getting more speculative, possibly even some sort of inflatable nasal display structure.

Some ankylosaurids, meanwhile, went with multiple holes instead. Minotaurasaurus here had two additional openings around its nostrils, and Pinacosaurus could have up to five -- the purpose of which is unknown. Many ankylosaurs also had forward-facing nostrils (a rare trait in archosaurs) and incredibly complex looping airways through their skulls. These may have allowed for mammal-like “air conditioning”, regulating the heat and moisture content of each breath, or perhaps enhanced their sense of smell or served some sort of resonance chamber function. Or, again, maybe even nose balloons.

Also floofy ankylosaur because I can.

[impulseimpact]