| Hungarosaurus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Right dentary | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Nodosaurinae |
| Clade: | †Struthiosaurini |
| Genus: | †Hungarosaurus Ősi,2005 |
| Species: | †H. tormai |
| Binomial name | |
| †Hungarosaurus tormai Ősi, 2005 | |
Hungarosaurus tormai (meaning 'Hungarian lizard' from theLatin Hungaria 'Hungary' and Greek σαυρος / 'sauros' 'lizard'), is a herbivorous nodosauridankylosaur from the UpperCretaceous (Santonian)Csehbánya Formation of theBakony Mountains of westernHungary. It is the most completely known ankylosaur from the Cretaceous ofEurope.
Hungarosaurus walked on four legs and its body was covered with hundreds ofosteoderms. The length of mature specimens was about 4–4.8 metres (13–16 ft) . Like other nodosaurids, it was aherbivore.
The species was named by Attila Ősi in 2005. The generic name is derived from Hungary and the Greeksauros, lizard. Thespecific name honours András Torma, the amateur paleontologist who discovered the fossil site in 2000.
Four specimens ofHungarosaurus tormai are known, all collected from an open-pitbauxite mine near the village of Iharkút, Veszprém County, in the Bakony Mountains (Transdanubian Range) of western Hungary. The quarry exposes theCsehbánya Formation (which overlies theHalimba Formation, also Cretaceous in age), which is a floodplain and channel deposit consisting largely of sandy clays and sandstone beds. The specimen designated as theholotype is MTM Gyn/404 (in the collections of the Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum,Budapest, Hungary) and consists of 450 bones, including portions of the skull (premaxilla, left prefrontal, left lacrimal, right postorbital, jugal and quadratojugal, left frontal, pterygoid, vomer, the right quadrate and a fragment of the left quadrate, basioccipital, one hyoid), an incomplete right mandible, three cervical vertebrae, six dorsal vertebrae, ten caudal vertebrae, ossified tendon fragments, three cerival and thirteen dorsal ribs, five chevrons, the left scapulocoracoid, right scapula, portions of the right manus, a partial pelvis, and more than one hundred osteoderms.[1]
Hungarosaurus was a small nodosaur, measuring 4–4.8 metres (13–16 ft) in length and weighing 650–1,000 kilograms (1,430–2,200 lb).[2][3] The skull of thisdinosaur is ornamented and estimated to have been 32–36 centimetres in length.[4]
Cladistic analysis on thetaxon indicates that it is a derived member of theNodosauridae, along withStruthiosaurus (another European nodosaurid).
The studies show thatHungarosaurus is slightly more advanced than Struthiosaurus, but more primitive than the North American nodosauridsSilvisaurus,Sauropelta andPawpawsaurus. This was supported by cladistic analysis, which suggests that it is abasal member of the family Nodosauridae.
The exposure of the Csehbánya Formation that producedHungarosaurus tormai has also yielded remains of bony fishes,turtles,lizards,crocodiles, andpterosaurs, along with teeth from a diminutivedromaeosaurid-liketheropod and aRhabdodon-likeornithopod.[1]
