Torosaurus Marsh, 1891

Lawson, Douglas A., 1976, Tyrannosaurus and Torosaurus, Maestrichtian Dinosaurs From Trans-Pecos, Texas, Journal of Paleontology 50 (1), pp. 158-164 : 161

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.3675277

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3681086

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A810F277-741B-D021-FAE8-F65C930FBB21

treatment provided by

Jeremy

scientific name

Torosaurus Marsh, 1891
status

 

Order Ornithischia

Suborder Ceratopsia

Family Ceratopsidae

Genus Torosaurus Marsh, 1891

Remarks.— There are three shapes to the frills of ceratopsia with fenestrated parietals, 1) triangular, found in Protoceratops , Chasmosaurus , and Pentaceratops , 2) figure-8, found in Brachyceratops , Monoclonius , Styracosaurus and presumably Pachyrhinosaurus , 3) broad frill with elliptical or circular fenestrae, found in Anchiceratops , Arrhinoceratops , and Torosaurus . Triceratops, except for a few “sports,” lacks fenestrae but is related to the last group. Considering the third group, in dorsal view Anchiceratops and Arrhinoceratops have rectangular frills with well developed epoccipitals. Torosaurus has a cardioid frill, has weakly developed epoccipitals, thinner parietals, and reduced vascular sulci. Since Torosaurus arose from an Arrhinoceratops- like form, a complete fossil record would show a gradation between forms and primitive torosaurs should be intermediate in character. Such a situation seems to exist in the case of Torosaurus utahensis .

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Dinosauria

Family

Ceratopsidae

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