Gideonmantellia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Gideonmantellia |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | †Ornithopoda |
| Genus: | †Gideonmantellia Ruiz-Omeñaca et al., 2012 |
| Type species | |
| †Gideonmantellia amosanjuanae Ruiz-Omeñaca et al., 2012
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Gideonmantellia was a type of dinosaur that lived a long, long time ago. It was a basic ornithopod, which means it belonged to a group of plant-eating dinosaurs. This dinosaur lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago. Its fossils were found in Galve, Province of Teruel, Spain. The only known species is Gideonmantellia amosanjuanae.
Discovery and Naming of Gideonmantellia
The story of Gideonmantellia's discovery began in 1982. An amateur fossil hunter named José María Herrero Marzo and his son Jesús found some dinosaur bones. They found them in a clay pit near Galve, Spain.
In 1987, a scientist named José Luis Sanz looked at some of these bones. He described a left femur (thigh bone) and an ilium (hip bone). At first, he thought these bones belonged to a dinosaur called Hypsilophodon foxii.
However, in 1995, another scientist, José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca, realized something important. After carefully preparing the bones, he saw that they were from a completely new type of dinosaur. He continued studying these fossils for many years. In 2006, he gave the dinosaur its name, Gideonmantellia amosanjuanae.
The name Gideonmantellia honors Gideon Mantell. He was the first person to describe the Hypsilophodon dinosaur. The second part of the name, amosanjuanae, honors a scientist named Olga María Amo Sanjuán. She studied the ancient animals that lived in Galve during the Cretaceous period.
The main fossil of Gideonmantellia is called the holotype. It is known as MPG-PBCH. This fossil was found in a river deposit from the Camarillas Formation. This rock layer dates back to the early Barremian age. The fossil is a partial skeleton of a young dinosaur. It includes many bones from its back, hips, and tail. It also has parts of its left hip and both hind legs. You can see this important fossil at the Museo Paleontológico de Galve in Spain.
Dinosaur Family Tree: Where Gideonmantellia Fits
Scientists study how different dinosaurs are related to each other. This is called phylogeny. When Gideonmantellia was first studied in 1995 and 2001, it was thought to be part of a group called Hypsilophodontidae.
However, scientists now believe that Hypsilophodontidae is not a natural group. In 2012, Gideonmantellia was placed in a more basic position within the larger group called Ornithopoda. Ornithopods were a very successful group of plant-eating dinosaurs.
More recently, in 2017, a study looked at a new dinosaur called Burianosaurus. This study suggested that Gideonmantellia might be the most basic (or earliest) known ornithopod. This means it could be very close to the common ancestor of all ornithopods.
The diagram below, called a cladogram, shows how scientists think these dinosaurs are related:
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See also
In Spanish: Gideonmantellia amosanjuanae para niños
