#talenkauen

[foreyarning]

Various ornithischian-focused paleoart from November 2022.

[totaldino]

Talenkauen

Talenkauen is a basal iguanodont with teeth in the tip of its beak, unlike more derived iguanodontians. It was around 4.5 m in length, and weighed about 300 kg. Similarities with other South American ornithopods suggest there was a distinct Southern Hemisphere group. Specimens include the first hatchling ornithopod discovered in the Southern Hemisphere.

[obscurefossils]

Talenkauen santacrucensis

Talenkauen was a genus of neornithischian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period. Its type species is T. santacrucensis. The only specimen was found on Los Hornos Hill on the coast of Viedma Lake in Patagonia, Argentina. This specimen was found lying next to a scattering of fragmentary bones and teeth, which has been identified as a recently-hatched baby T. santacrucensis.

Talenkauen means "small skull;" its root words "talenk" and "kauen" originate from the Aonikenk language.

Its autapomorphies include a well–developed epipophysis on cervical 3 and plate–like unicate processes on the rib cage.

Talenkauen was a bipedal herbivorous dinosaur. It was at most 4 meters long, with a similar build to Dryosaurus, having short limbs, a long trunk and neck, and a small head. It was found to be closely related to Macrogryphosaurus and the clade Elasmaria was erected for the two genera. As of 2019, Elasmaria now includes almost a dozen genera.

Original paper: Novas, Fernando E.; Cambiaso, Andrea V; Ambrioso, Alfredo (2004). "A new basal iguanodontian (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia". Ameghiniana. 41 (1): 75–82.

Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talenkauen

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Talenkauen santacrucensis

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable

PLEASE support us on Patreon! We really do need all of your support to keep this blog running - any amount helps!

Name: Talenkauen santacrucensis

Name Meaning: Small Skull

First Described: 2004

Described By: Novas et al. 

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Neornithischia, Thescelosauridae, Thescelosaurinae, Elasmaria

Continuing on our theme of “man, the Boyd analysis lead to some weird realities,” here is our third Iguanodont-turned-Thescelosaurine, Talenkauen. It is known from a fragmentary skull and partial skeleton, from the Pari Aike Formation in Santa Cruz, Argentina. It dates back to the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous, approximately 96.2 million years ago. It had thin plates along the sides of its ribs like some other Thescelosaurines, and it had a fairly long neck and still had teeth at the tip of its beak. It lived alongside dinosaurs such as Puertasaurus and Orkoraptor, and was approximately 4 meters long. 

Sources:

Boyd, C. A. 2015. The systematic relationships and biogeographic history of ornithischian dinosaurs. PeerJ 3:e1523 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1523.

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

Shout out goes to @katzalex2!

[chris-masna]

Hello, I am the Devil by ChrisMasna