Pronunciation: o-OH-ko-TOE-kee-uh
Meaning: Child of stone
Author/s: Penkalski (2013)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Montana, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #833
Oohkotokia horneri
It's a rather unfortunate drawback of palaeontology that the average dinosaur is discovered under, or at least surrounded by, tons of muck. But, as luck would have it, Oohkotokia was "unearthed" by Paul Penkalski in 2013 at Montana's Museum of the Rockies, where it had been loitering, barely noticed, for the best part of three decades. The advantages of this fortuitous find were two-fold.
Not only did Penkalski cunningly avoid dirty fingernails, blisters and backstrain, but Oohkotokia neatly side-stepped the taxonomic turmoil that tends to plague Late Cretaceous North American ankylosaurids. The likes of Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus, Scolosaurus cutleri and Anodontosaurus lambei have all been taxonomically entangled with Euoplocephalus tutus for many a year. But by the time Oohkotokia was officially described, Ankylosauridae had stabilized somewhat, the previously mentioned problematic critters had been pulled from the pit and recognized as distinct critters in their own right, and Oohkotokia sports a unique suite of characteristics that indicate it is a distinct critter too. Apparently.
According to Penkalski, large eye sockets, a three-sided horn-like boss on each cheek, a modest nasal plate, a smooth skull, robust limbs, and a combination of ankylosaurid and nodosaurid-style osteoderms are among the features that separate Oohkotokia from its similar-aged kin. Still, its most unusual feature is a roughly triangular area around which the skull has been splayed outward as if it had been stepped on and squished.
Oohkotokia also owns the first tail club (320 mm wide and well-preserved) ever found in the Two Medicine Formation and is the first new ankylosaurid from Montana or Alberta to be described in more than 80 years, except it may not be new, according to Victoria Arbour and Philip Currie, who viewed its remains in May 2013 and reckon it's a dead ringer for Scolosaurus cutleri.
Not only did Penkalski cunningly avoid dirty fingernails, blisters and backstrain, but Oohkotokia neatly side-stepped the taxonomic turmoil that tends to plague Late Cretaceous North American ankylosaurids. The likes of Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus, Scolosaurus cutleri and Anodontosaurus lambei have all been taxonomically entangled with Euoplocephalus tutus for many a year. But by the time Oohkotokia was officially described, Ankylosauridae had stabilized somewhat, the previously mentioned problematic critters had been pulled from the pit and recognized as distinct critters in their own right, and Oohkotokia sports a unique suite of characteristics that indicate it is a distinct critter too. Apparently.
According to Penkalski, large eye sockets, a three-sided horn-like boss on each cheek, a modest nasal plate, a smooth skull, robust limbs, and a combination of ankylosaurid and nodosaurid-style osteoderms are among the features that separate Oohkotokia from its similar-aged kin. Still, its most unusual feature is a roughly triangular area around which the skull has been splayed outward as if it had been stepped on and squished.
Oohkotokia also owns the first tail club (320 mm wide and well-preserved) ever found in the Two Medicine Formation and is the first new ankylosaurid from Montana or Alberta to be described in more than 80 years, except it may not be new, according to Victoria Arbour and Philip Currie, who viewed its remains in May 2013 and reckon it's a dead ringer for Scolosaurus cutleri.
(Horner's Child of Stone)Etymology
Oohkotokia is derived from the Blackfoot "ooh'kotoka" (large stone or rock) and the Latin "-ia" (made of or derived from). Literally, the name is intended to mean "child of stone" in allusion to its all-encompassing
armour, and honours the Blackfoot peoples, on whose land the specimen was found.
The species epithet, horneri, honours palaeontologist Jack Horner. ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:6F89F9C1-9503-4066-BCAC-3AD7CC93E4CA.
Discovery
The remains of Oohkotokia were discovered in the Upper Two Medicine Formation at MOR Locality TM-034, northwest of Cut Bank, Montana, USA, by field crews from the Museum of the Rockies in 1986-87.
The holotype (MOR 433) is a skull and fragmentary skeleton.
Referred Specimens
USNM 11892, a partial skull and five teeth, with the largest cheek "horns" of any known Upper Campanian/Lower Maastrichtian North American ankylosaurid, from the
Upper Two Medicine Formation. Referred to Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus by Gilmore in 1930.
MOR 538, a partial tail club from the Upper Two Medicine Formation, similar to that of TMP 2001.42.19.
USNM 7943, a partial half-ring of neck armour, found north of Milk River, near Landslide Butte, Glacier County, Montana, in 1917, near the holotype site of Brachyceratops.
MOR 363, a partial skull from the Upper Two Medicine Formation, with features identical to those of the holotype.
NSM PV 20381, a
partial skull, vertebrae, a partial pelvis, forelimb and hindlimb
elements without feet, and one keeled osteoderm,
recovered from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana in 1995 but not described, and referred to Euoplocephalus by Tanoue in 2005.
FPDM V-35, another undescribed specimen from the Upper Two Medicine Formation.
TMP 2001.42.19, a partial toothless skull (heavily reconstructed), elements of the vertebral column and limb bones, a tail club, and some
armour, found in the Two Medicine Formation southwest of Cut Bank, Montana, by a private collector.
