Erketu ellisoni

Erketu ellisoni new taxon

HOLOTYPE: IGM 100 View Materials /1803: articulated cervical series including complete first through fifth cervical vertebrae, partial sixth cervical vertebra, right sternal plate, articulated right tibia, fibula, astragalus, and calcaneum.

ETYMOLOGY: Erketu: In Mongolian shamanistic tradition, there are 99 Tengri (deities). Erketü Tengri is the Mighty Tengri, a creator-god who called Yesügei, the father of Chingis Khan, into being. ellisoni: In honor of Mick Ellison, for his contributions to ongoing AMNH dinosaur research.

DIAGNOSIS: Referable to Titanosauriformes based on elongate cervical vertebrae with camellae and referable within Titanosauriformes to Somphospondyli based on reduced neural arch lamination. Differentiated from all other Titanosauriformes in which cervical vertebrae are known by combination of extremely elongated (EI indices of anterior cervicals exceeding 5.0) cervical centra and bifurcate anterior cervical neural spines.

TYPE LOCALITY AND HORIZON: Bor Guve´: late Early Cretaceous. Stratigraphically, the beds at this locality lie below the Tsaagan Tsonch beds (a unit that contains Iguanodon orientalis ) and above the Khara Khuutul beds, both believed to be of late Early Cretaceous age ( Shuvalov, 2000). The lack of materials suitable for radiometric dating leaves the exact age of this locality uncertain.