Polyonax

Polyonax
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 66 Ma
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Ceratopsia
Family: Ceratopsidae
Genus: Polyonax
Cope, 1874
Species:
P. mortuarius
Binomial name
Polyonax mortuarius
Cope, 1874
Synonyms
  • Agathaumas mortuarius
    (Cope, 1874) Hay, 1901
  • Triceratops mortuarius
    (Cope, 1874) Kuhn, 1936

Polyonax (meaning "master over many") was a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Denver Formation[citation needed] of Colorado, United States. Founded upon poor remains, it is today regarded as a dubious name.

History

During an 1873 trip through the western US, paleontologist and naturalist Edward Drinker Cope collected some fragmentary dinosaurian material which he soon named as a new genus. Catalogued today as AMNH FR 3950, the type material included three dorsal vertebrae, limb bone material, and what are now known to be horn cores, from a subadult individual. Although it was briefly mixed up with hadrosaurs, and even considered to be a possible synonym of Trachodon, it was recognized as a horned dinosaur in time for the first monograph on horned dinosaurs (1907), wherein it was regarded as based on indeterminate material. Today, the name is used as little more than a historical curiosity, as it dates from a time before horned dinosaurs were known to exist. The most recent review listed it as an indeterminate ceratopsid.

It has sometimes been listed as a synonym of Agathaumas, or Triceratops.

Paleobiology

As a ceratopsid, Polyonax would have been a large, quadrupedal herbivore, with brow and nasal horns and a neck frill.

See also



This page was last updated at 2024-03-18 09:38 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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