Alaskacephale

Alaskacephale Temporal range: Early Campanian to Middle Maastrichtian, 80–69 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	†Ornithischia
Suborder:	†Pachycephalosauria
Family:	†Pachycephalosauridae
Genus:	†Alaskacephale Sullivan, 2006
Species:	†A. gangloffi
Binomial name
†Alaskacephale gangloffi Sullivan, 2006

Alaskacephale was a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in the late Campanian to Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous (around 80 to 69 million years ago).

Alaskacephale was named by Robert Sullivan in 2006.^[1] The genus name refers to Alaska, where the holotype was discovered, combined with the Greek kephale, meaning head. The species name, gangloffi, honors paleontologist Roland Gangloff. The only known specimen of A. gangloffi is the holotype UAM AK-493-V-001, found in 1999, a nearly complete left squamosal with a characteristic array of polygonal nodes. The dimensions of this bone suggest that A. gangloffi was about half the size of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis or three quarters the size of Prenocephale, and about the same size as "Prenocephale" edmontonensis and Foraminacephale.^[2]

The specimen was previously described by Gangloff et al. (2005) as an unnamed pachycephalosaurid, possibly a Pachycephalosaurus. Gangloff et al. described the squamosal as having an interdigitated suture with the quadrate, a feature previously described only in Pachycephalosaurus. Sullivan (2006) opined that this "suture" is instead a breakage point in both Alaskacephale and Pachycephalosaurus, so it could not be used to unite the two taxa.

See also[]

• Timeline of pachycephalosaur research

References[]