Theropods of the Judith River Formation of dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada
Author
Currie, P. J.
text
1987
1987-12-31
Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology
Drumheller, Alberta
Editor
Currie P. J.
Editor
Koster E. H.
Fourth Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems
51
60
book chapter
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3676391
246dae96-99ed-4bb9-9ae7-b0223b873cf6
3676391
Although frontals
of
caenagnathids
are currently unknown from Dinosaur Provincial
Park
,
one
can predict that they
will
be bulbous and lightly built, like those
of
Oviraptor
. The isolated
parietal
(
TMP
81.19.252
)
shows that
the frontals are separated from each other caudally by a rostral process of
the
fused parietals, and that
the
frontal broadly overlaps
the
parietal posterolaterally.
There
is no cranial
material
known for elmisaurids from
either
Mongolia
or
Alberta. Currie and Russell (in preparation) have
expressed
an
opinion that the elmisaurid
Chirostenotes
is
congeneric with
Caenagnathus
, and therefore that the
taxon
Elmisauridae
is invalid. Unfortunately, there
is
no
way
of solving
this dilemma
until better specimens are recovered.
A lower jaw
described
by
Gilmore (1924)
was
tentatively
assigned
to "
Chirostenotes
". If
Chirostenotes
and
the
toothless
Caenagnathus
are congeneric,
then
NMC 343
represents another theropod
that
can be characterized
by
long, slender jaws bearing teeth
with
extremely fine serrations. It is possible that
this
animal
is
the one that had the frontal that
has been
assigned to Erlicosaurus.