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ALASKACEPHALE
(ah-lass-kah-sef-a-lay)
meaning: "Alaskan head"
Alaskacephale
Named By: R. M. Sullivan 2006
Time Period: Late Campanian, 80-69 Ma
Location: USA, Alaska - Prince Creek Formation
Size: Unknown due to lack of fossil remains, but comparison to similar pachycephalosaur dinosaurs suggests a rough estimate of about 2.4 meters long
Diet: Herbivore
Fossil(s): A left squamosal (one of the skull bones) and part of the parietal dome
Classification: | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Ornithischia | Pachycephalosauria | Pachycephalosauridae |
About

Alaskacephale was a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in the late Campanian to Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous (around 80 to 69 million years ago).

Alaskacephale was named by Robert Sullivan in 2006. The genus name refers to Alaska, where the fossil was found in the Prince Creek Formation. The species name, gangloffi, honors paleontologist Roland Gangloff. The only known specimen of A. gangloffi is the holotype, a nearly complete left squamosal with a characteristic array of polygonal nodes. The dimensions of this bone suggest that A. gangloffi was about half the size of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis or three quarters the size of Prenocephale, and about the same size as "Prenocephale" edmontonensis and Foraminacephale.

The specimen was previously described by Gangloff et al. (2005) as an unnamed pachycephalosaurid, possibly a Pachycephalosaurus. Gangloff et al. described the squamosal as having an interdigitated suture with the quadrate, a feature previously described only in Pachycephalosaurus. Sullivan (2006) opined that this "suture" is instead a breakage point in both Alaskacephale and Pachycephalosaurus, so it could not be used to unite the two taxa.

Read more about Alaskacephale at Wikipedia
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