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Gastonia

Restoration

Gastonia is an nodosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period that lived in what is now Utah.

Description[]

Known from relatively complete remains,[1] Gastonia grew to approximately 3 meters in length. Like other ankylosaurs it was heavily armored, and also had large shoulder spikes.

Classification[]

Gastonia was a polacanthine ankylosaur, closely related to Mymoorapelta and Polacanthus.[2]

Discovery[]

Gastonia was described from the Cretaceous-age Cedar Mountain Formation in 1998 by James Kirkland.[3] It was named after its discoverer, Robert Gaston.

In popular culture[]

Gastonia appeared in Bob Bakker's novel Raptor Red. A pack of Utahraptor (whose bones were found in the same formation) encountered these dinosaurs through the course of the book.[4] Similarly, a Utahraptor attacks a Gastonia in an episode of the series Jurassic Fight Club.

References[]

  1. Benton, Michael J. (2012). com Prehistoric Life. Edinburgh, Scotland: Dorling Kindersley. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-7566-9910-9.
  2. Carpenter K (2001). "Phylogenetic analysis of the Ankylosauria". In Carpenter, Kenneth(ed). The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. pp. 455–484. ISBN 0-253-33964-2.
  3. Kirkland, J.I. and Madsen, S.K. 2007. The Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, eastern Utah: the view up an always interesting learning curve. Fieldtrip Guidebook, Geological Society of America, Rocky Mountain Section. 1-108 p.
  4. Bakker, Robert (September 1996). Raptor Red (paperback ed.). Bantam Books. p. 4. ISBN 0553575619.
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