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Urbacodon
From Veropedia, based on Wikipedia

Categories: Dinosaurs

Urbacodon
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Infraorder: Deinonychosauria
Family: Troodontidae
Genus: Urbacodon
Binomial name
Urbacodon itemirensis
Averianov & Sues, 2007

Urbacodon ("URBAC tooth") is a small carnivorous dinosaur that lived in Uzbekistan during the early Late Cretaceous Period, about 95 million years ago. The first part of the name Urbacodon is an acronym, honouring the Uzbek, Russian, British, American and Canadian scientists who participated in its discovery. The type species, U. itemirensis, was named by Alexander Averianov and Hans-Dieter Sues in 2007 on the basis of a single left dentary with teeth from the Cenomanian Dzharakuduk Formation[1]. Averianov and Sues also identified teeth as Urbacodon sp. from the nearby Turonian Bissekty Formation.

The holotype dentary of U. itemirensis is 79.2 mm long and has 32 teeth. Urbacodon resembles Byronosaurus and Mei but differs from most other Troodontidae in that its teeth lack serrations. It is distinguished from Byronosaurus by a less vascularized lateral dentary groove and more bulbous anterior tooth crowns, and from Mei by considerably larger size. Averianov and Sues viewed Urbacodon as more plesiomorphic than Troodon and Saurornithoides in having a straight dentary with fewer teeth, but did not attempt to place it on a cladogram.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Averianov, A.O., and Sues, H.-D. (2007). "A new troodontid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Uzbekistan, with a review of troodontid records from the territories of the former Soviet Union." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 27(1): 87-98.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbacodon"

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