biology

Niobrarasaurus

Niobrarasaurus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Niobrarasaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Niobrarasaurus (meaning "Niobrara lizard") is an extinct genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous, around 87 to 82 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation, in western Kansas, which would have been near the middle of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous.

Key takeaways

Niobrarasaurus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Niobrarasaurus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Niobrarasaurus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Niobrarasaurus (meaning "Niobrara lizard") is an extinct genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous, around 87 to 82 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation, in western Kansas, which would have been near the middle of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous. It was probably closely related to Nodosaurus. The type species, Niobrarasaurus coleii, was discovered and collected in 1930 by geologist Virgil Cole. It was originally described by Mehl in 1936 and named as a species of Hierosaurus. It was then re-described as a new genus by Carpenter et al. in 1995. In 2002 the type specimen was transferred to the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hays, Kansas. It has been estimated at 5 metres (16 ft) in length and around 227–453 kilograms (500–999 lb) in body mass according to Thomas Holtz. Paul gave a higher estimation of 6.5 metres (21 ft) and 4 tonnes (4.4 short tons).

Discovery and naming

The first remains of dinosaurs were discovered in the Niobrara Formation of Kansas by the excavations of American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, who worked in the area from 1870 to 1872. The first of these dinosaur remains were collected and returned to the Yale Peabody Museum where they were named Hadrosaurus agilis by Marsh in 1872, before being given the generic name Claosaurus in 1890. An ankylosaur was then discovered in 1905 by Canadian paleontologist Charles H. Sternberg, though they were originally identified as the scutes of a turtle. These scutes, and additional material of the skeleton, were identified as the remains of an ankylosaur by American paleontologist George Wieland, who named them Hierosaurus sternbergii in 1909. The third discovery of dinosaurs in the Niobrara were found in the spring of 1930, where Virgil B. Cole excavated a large collection of bones and fragments, which were sent to the University of Missouri and accessioned as MU 650 VP. Cole wrote to American paleontologist Maurice Mehl about the finds on 25 February 1930, where he described the discovery as a baby due to its small size. Many portions of the skeleton were articulated, and while most was weathered and broken into pieces, the ability to reassemble fragments led Mehl to believe that missing portions were scattered before burial.

The skeleton of MU 650 VP includes most of the skeleton and armor, with parts of the skull and teeth, vertebrae from the cervical, dorsal, sacral, and caudal regions and their ribs, parts of the scapula and ilium, and bones from the forelimb and hindlimb. It was discovered in Gove County, around 11 mi (18 km) south of Hackberry, Kansas, around 195 ft (59 m) above the base of the Niobrara Formation within the Smoky Hill Chalk Member. When originally described, Mehl considered the material to represent a new species of ankylosaur, giving it the name Hierosaurus coleii. It was referred only tentatively to Hierosaurus, as while there were both similarities and differences between the two species of the genus, until additional material of ankylosaur showing clearly that more than one genus was present within the Niobrara Formation, considering all ankylosaurs from to represent a single genus was advisable. Revisions of the ankylosaurs by American paleontologist Walter P. Coombs found Hierosaurus to be either an undiagnostic nodosaurid or a junior synonym of Nodosaurus, with his 1971 thesis renaming H. coleii as "Nodosaurus coleii" as H. sternbergii was considered dubious, and his 1978 revision of ankylosaur families simply listing Hierosaurus as a synonym of Nodosaurus. Coombs and Polish paleontologist Teresa Maryańska then considered Hierosaurus coleii to be a junior synonym of Nodosaurus textilis in 1990, with H. sternbergii as a dubious taxon. American paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter and colleagues reviewed Hierosaurus in 1995, finding the type species H. sternbergii to be a dubious taxon based on inadequate material. As H. coleii was diagnostic, and lacked any features unique to it and Nodosaurus, Carpenter and colleagues named the new genus Niobrarasaurus for the species, with the genus named after the Niobrara Formation it was found in.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Niobrarasaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Niobrarasaurus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Niobrarasaurus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Niobrarasaurus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Niobrarasaurus

In research: Niobrarasaurus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Niobrarasaurus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Niobrarasaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Coniacian dinosaurs, Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Niobrarasaurus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Niobrarasaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Niobrarasaurus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Niobrarasaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Niobrarasaurus in simple terms?

Why does Niobrarasaurus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Niobrarasaurus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Niobrarasaurus.