Bactrosaurus

genus of reptiles (fossil)

Bactrosaurus was a hadrosaur from the Upper Cretaceous about 70 milion years ago. This plant-eating dinosaur. was found in the Gobi Desert of China. It was about 6 metres (20 feet) long and 2 metres (6.6 feet) high when standing on all fours. It weighed 1.1 to 1.5 tonnes (2,400 to 3,300 pounds).

Bactrosaurus
Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous,
~96 mya
Skeleton on display at the Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs, Ulaanbaatar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Ornithopoda
Clade: Hadrosauromorpha
Genus: Bactrosaurus
Gilmore, 1933
Type species
Bactrosaurus johnsoni
Gilmore, 1933
Species
  • B. kysylkumensis? (Riabinin, 1931 [originally Cionodon])
  • B. johnsoni Gilmore, 1933

Research showed that this genus and its near relatives were unusually prone to cancer. Among more than 10,000 specimens x-rayed, tumors were only found in these Cretaceous hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs).[1] The reason for this is not known.

References change

  1. Rothschild B.M. et al 2003. Epidemiologic study of tumors in dinosaurs". Naturwissenschaften 90 (11): 495–500. [1]