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| ©Nobu Tamura; listed as Minataurasaurus |
The name
Minataurasaurus is a fairly awesome name, in my opinion. Unfortunately it has been recently decided that
Minataurasaurus is a junior synonym to an ankylosaur described by Osmolska in 1977 known as
Tarchia. There are two species in this genus;
Tarchia kielanae Maryanska, 1977 and
Tarchia teresae Penkalski & Tumanova, 2016. Overall Tarchia is a fairly typical ankylosaur but the holotype name references a somewhat unique feature of the animal: a larger brain than other ankylosaurs. This may be in the eye of the beholder (Maryanska) or it may be supported by the remains of the animal; hopefully this will be something we can address later this week. The generic name comes from the Mongolian word for brain, tarkhi, and the scientific name refers to a part of the name of the leader of the 1970 Polish-Mongolian expedition that discovered the fossil, Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska.
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