Altirhinus
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Altirhinus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous |
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| Skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | Ornithopoda |
| Infraorder: | Iguanodontia |
| Superfamily: | Hadrosauroidea |
| Genus: | Altirhinus |
| Species: | A. kurzanovi |
| Binomial name | |
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Altirhinus kurzanovi Norman, 1998 |
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Altirhinus (/ˌæltᵻˈraɪnəs/; "high snout") is a genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of Mongolia.
Altirhinus was herbivorous and bipedal when walking or running, but probably became quadrupedal when feeding from the ground. According to the original description, the entire body probably extended 8 m from snout to tail tip. In 2010 Gregory S. Paul estimated the length at 6.5 metres (21 ft), the weight at 1.1 tonnes. The skull alone is about 760 mm long, with a wide mouth and a distinctive tall arch on top of its snout, from which this dinosaur derives its name.
All known specimens of Altirhinus were recovered in 1981 during collaborative expeditions organized by Soviet and Mongolian scientists, from the Khukhtek Formation in the Dornogovi Province of Mongolia. The Khukhtek was formed in the Aptian to Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous Period, which lasted from between 125 and 100 million years ago. Psittacosaurus and the primitive ankylosaurid Shamosaurus have also been found in these rocks.
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