biology

Ratchasimasaurus

Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Ratchasimasaurus (meaning "Nakhon Ratchasima lizard") is a genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur from Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage) Khok Kruat Formation of Nakhon Ratchasima province in northeastern Thailand. The type and only species is R. suranareae, named after Thao Suranari, a 19th-century war heroine.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ratchasimasaurus (meaning "Nakhon Ratchasima lizard") is a genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur from Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage) Khok Kruat Formation of Nakhon Ratchasima province in northeastern Thailand. The type and only species is R. suranareae, named after Thao Suranari, a 19th-century war heroine. It was considered by one study to be a nomen dubium, diagnosed with characters widespread in Styracosterna.

Discovery and naming Ratchasimasaurus was initially known as the "Probactrosaurus-like" iguanodontian and is only known from the holotype (specimen NRRU-A2064), a complete left dentary with no teeth that was found in the Khok Kruat Formation in Thailand by a local farmer near a pond, likely around c. 2002 – c. 2004; NRRU-A2064 was mentioned by Norman in 2004 in a phylogenenetic analysis. The genus was named in 2011 by Shibata, Jintasakul & Azuma. The holotype is currently housed in The Northeastern Research Institute of Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources (NRIPM) and a mounted skeleton exists in River City, Bangkok.

Description One autapomorphy (unique characteristic) of Ratchasimasaurus is its elongated and flat ramus of the dentary. Ratchasimasaurus shows both primitive and derived characters for Iguanodontia, such as "a caudally inclined coronoid process and alveolar trough with a primitive crown impression, and a derived buccal shelf between the tooth row and the coronoid process". The length of the dentary is 198.1 millimetres (7.80 in).

References

External links Data related to Ratchasimasaurus at Wikispecies

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ratchasimasaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus

In research: Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus 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: Ratchasimasaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aptian dinosaurs, Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Thailand, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ratchasimasaurus in simple terms?

Why does Ratchasimasaurus 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 Ratchasimasaurus?

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 Ratchasimasaurus.