Parksosaurus

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Parksosaurus

ZooTek Phoenix

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Author: Moondawg

Keywords: extinct animals

Date Released: Jan 29 2009

Current ParksosaurusMD_2009.ztd dated 4 January 2009

File Size: 1.37mb

Compatibility: DD, MM, and CC. Cannot be used in original Zoo Tycoon because of needed food type.

Description: Parksosaurus ("William Parks's lizard") was a genus of hypsilophodont ornithopod dinosaur from the early Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada.
It is based on most of a partially articulated skeleton and partial skull, showing it to have been a small, bipedal, herbivorous dinosaur. It is one of the few described non-hadrosaurid ornithopods from the end of the Cretaceous in North America, existing around 70 million years ago.

Explicit estimates of the entire size of the animal have not been done, but William Parks found the hindlimb of his T. warreni to be about the same length overall as that of Thescelosaurus neglectus (93.0 centimeters (3.05 ft) for T. warreni versus 95.5 centimeters (3.13 ft) for T. neglectus), even though the shin was shorter than the thigh in T. neglectus, the opposite of T. warreni. Thus, the animal would have been comparable to the better-known Thescelosaurus in linear dimensions, despite proportional differences (around 1 meter (3.3 ft) tall at the hips, 2-2.5 meters (6.56-8.2 ft) long). The proportional differences probably would have made it lighter, though, as less weight was concentrated near the thigh. Like Thescelosaurus, it had thin cartilaginous plates along the ribs.

Parksosaurus has been considered to be a hypsilophodont since its description. Recent reviews have dealt with it with little comment, although David B. Norman and colleagues (2004), in the framework of a paraphyletic Hypsilophodontidae, found it to be the sister taxon to Thescelosaurus, and Richard Butler and colleagues (2008) found that it may be close to the South American genus Gasparinisaura. However, basal ornithopod phylogeny is poorly known at this point, albeit under study. Like Thescelosaurus, Parksosaurus had a relatively robust hindlimb, and an elongate skull without as much of an arched shape to the forehead compared to other hypsilophodonts.

Paleontologist William Parks described skeleton ROM 804 in 1926 as Thescelosaurus warreni, which had been discovered in what was then called the Edmonton Formation near Rumsey Ferry on the Red Deer River. When found, it consisted of a partial skull missing the beak region, most of the left pectoral girdle (including a suprascapula, a bone more commonly found in lizards, but which is believed to have been present in cartilaginous form in some ornithopods due to the roughened ends of their scapulae), the left arm except the hand, ribs and sternal elements, a damaged left pelvis, right ischium, the left leg except for some toe bones, articulated vertebrae from the back, hip, and tail, and a number of ossified tendons that sheathed the end of the tail. The body of the animal had fallen on its left side, and most of the right side had been destroyed before burial; in addition, the head had been separated from the body, and the neck lost. Parks differentiated the new species from T. neglectus by leg proportions; T. warreni had a longer tibia than femur, and longer toes.

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Additional info:

ParksosaurusMD_2009.ztd                                   uca: 1AA2DB7A dated 4 January 2009

Results From Configuration Checking:

1aa2db7a.uca date: Sun Jan 04 22:01:10 2009
No Errors or Warnings to show.
Animal Type: 1AA2DB7A

Parksosaurus

It is based on most of a partially articulated skeleton and partial skull,
showing it to have been a small, bipedal, herbivorous dinosaur. It is one of
the few described non-hadrosaurid ornithopods from the end of the Cretaceous
in North America, existing around 70 million years ago.
    (plus 7 other paragraphs)

Animal Characteristics:

Habitat: Coniferous Forest; Location: North America; Era: Cretaceous
Minimum happiness needed for chance of breeding: 95.
Preferred shelter: Rock Cave.
Animal can jump.
Animal can climb cliffs.
Cannot be used in original Zoo Tycoon: cKeeperFoodType (8) is not 0 to 5.

Exhibit Preferences:

Foliage:
Lodgepole Pine Tree, Fir Tree, Pine Tree, Spruce Tree, Yellow Cedar Tree
Western Red Cedar Tree, Club Moss Shrub (DD), Walchian Conifer Tree (DD)
Dawn Redwood Tree (DD), Lepidodendron Tree (DD)
Norfolk Island Pine Tree (DD), Sigillaria Tree (DD)

Rocks:
Large Rock, Large Rock - 1, Large Rock - 2, Large Rock - 3, Large Rock - 4
Small Rock - Medium, Small Rock - Small, Small Rock - 7, Small Rock - 8
Small Rock - 9, Coniferous Forest Rock - Formation
Medium Coniferous Rock (DD)

Exhibit Construction:

Number of animals allowed per exhibit: 3-6 with 20 squares for each adult.

Exhibit size (for 3 adults): 60 grid squares

Terrain (for exhibit with 60 grid squares):
42 Coniferous Floor, 3 Dirt, 6 Fresh Water, 9 Grass

Foliage (for exhibit with 60 grid squares):
4 grid squares should contain foliage.
Foliage that would give the most happiness: Norfolk Island Pine Tree (DD)
Since this is a small plant, greatest happiness will occur
if each of the 4 grid squares contains 4 of this plant.

Rocks (for exhibit with 60 grid squares):
5 Small Rock - Small, which is its most liked rock.

Elevation: Of the 60 squares, 2 nonadjacent squares should be elevated.