Coahuilasaurus

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Coahuilasaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), 72.5  Ma
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Coahuilasaurus (holotype).png
Holotype photographs and line drawings
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Family: Hadrosauridae
Subfamily: Saurolophinae
Tribe: Kritosaurini
Genus: Coahuilasaurus
Longrich et al., 2024
Type species
Coahuilasaurus lipani
Longrich et al., 2024

Coahuilasaurus (meaning "Coahuila lizard") is an extinct genus of kritosaurin ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Coahuila, Mexico. The genus contains a single species, C. lipani, known from the associated tips of the upper and lower jaw and other fragmentary skull bones. It is a large kritosaurin with an estimated body length of 8 metres (26 ft). [1]

Contents

Discovery and naming

Reconstructed skull Coahuilasaurus (skull reconstruction).png
Reconstructed skull

The holotype specimen, IGM 6685, is a partial skull. It was originally thought to belong to the same genus as PASAC 1, a large unnamed specimen known as the "Sabinas hadrosaurid", but this referral was later rejected. IGM 6685 was later referred to as a specimen of Kritosaurus . [2]

IGM 6685 was later named as a new genus and species of kritosaurin hadrosaurid in 2024. The generic name, Coahuilasaurus, honors the Mexican state of Coahuila, where the fossils were found. The specific name, lipani, honors the Lépai-Ndé or Lipani, a tribe of Apache Native Americans known from the area. [1]

Life restoration and size comparison. Life reconstruction and size comparison of Coahuilasaurus lipani.png
Life restoration and size comparison.

Classification

Life restoration Life reconstruction of Coahuilasaurus.png
Life restoration

Longrich et al. added Coahuilasaurus to a phylogenetic analysis which found it to be a member of the Kritosaurini, while the Sabinas hadrosaur was found to be a member of Saurolophini. A cladogram adapted from that analysis is shown below: [1]

Saurolophinae

Paleoenvironment

A reconstruction of North America during the Campanian North america 75mya.png
A reconstruction of North America during the Campanian

The Cerro del Pueblo Formation is the oldest member of the Difunta Group, which is believed to have been deposited in the Campanian. [3] [4] [5] It is primarily made up of alternating layers of siltstones, sandstones, and gray shales. These rocks preserve fluvial, lacustrine, coastal, and shallow marine ecosystems. The shale layers primarily preserve marine invertebrates such as ammonites and gastropods and they interbedded with sandstone and siltstone layers, suggesting that sea levels were fluctuating over the time that the formation was deposited. The terrestrial deposits, in which the contemporary ornithomimosaur Paraxenisaurus was found, are believed to represent a coastal floodplain on the margin of an estuary. The presence of a diverse array of crocodiles, turtles, and freshwater bivalves suggests a heavily vegetated riverine ecosystem. The abundance of dinosaur teeth and bone fragments also suggests that the region was replete with vegetation and supported a diverse assemblage of megafauna. [5]

Contemporary fauna

Dinosaur remains are abundant in the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, but most of the known remains are very incomplete. Many of these dinosaurs are known only from teeth, and are therefore very difficult to assign to any specific genera. Teeth from theropods are very common and have shown that tyrannosaurids, dromaeosaurids, troodontids, [6] and caenagnathids [7] lived in this environment in addition to the above-mentioned ornithomimosaurs.

A reconstruction of Velafrons in the environment of the Cerro del Pueblo Formation Velafrons coahuilensis Marco A. Pineda.png
A reconstruction of Velafrons in the environment of the Cerro del Pueblo Formation

Ornithischians were also common and diverse in the ecosystem, much like the contemporaneous Dinosaur Park, Two Medicine, Kaiparowits, and Kirtland formations. [6] Hadrosaur remains are the most common dinosaur fossil material found in the Cerro del Pueblo, being known from vertebrae, limb bones, jawbones, teeth, and shoulder bones. [6] Some of these taxa have been named and described, such as Tlatolophus , Velafrons , and Latirhinus , [8] but most remains have yet to be formally named or described, and additional species may have existed. [6] Ankylosaurs are represented by several unnamed taxa, and ceratopsids like Coahuilaceratops are known to have coexisted with both chasmosaurines and centrosaurines. Fossilized footprints from some kind of pterosaur are also known from this formation. [6]

Like most fluvial sediments from the Campanian of Laramidia, the Cerro del Pueblo Formation was home to a wide array of turtles including pleurodires, paracryptodires, cheloniids, kinosternids, and trionychids. These would have coexisted with both goniopholids and eusuchian crocodyliformes in both freshwater and saltwater environments. There is also some evidence of snakes from this environment. Microfossils have also preserved gastropods, ammonites, bivalves, and other invertebrates. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Deinocheirus</i> Genus of theropod dinosaurs

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerro del Pueblo Formation</span> Geological formation in Mexico

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<i>Latirhinus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olmos Formation</span>

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Yehuecauhceratops is a genus of horned centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Coahuila, Mexico. It contains a single species, Y. mudei, described from two partial specimens by Rivera-Sylva et al. in 2016 and formally named by Rivera-Sylva et al. in 2017. It was a small centrosaurine with a body length of 3 metres (9.8 ft), making it smaller than Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, the other two ceratopsids in its environment; the three may have been ecologically segregated. A ridge bearing a single roughened projection near the bottom of the squamosal bone, which probably supported a small horn, allows Yehuecauhceratops to be distinguished from other centrosaurines. Its affinities to nasutoceratopsin centrosaurines, such as Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops, are supported by various morphological similarities to the former.

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<i>Paraxenisaurus</i> Genus of deinocheirid dinosaur (fossil)

Paraxenisaurus is an extinct genus of ornithomimosaurian theropod from the Late Cretaceous Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Coahuila in Mexico. The genus contains a single species, P. normalensis, which is known from a few bones of tail, hips, hands, and feet. The specific epithet was given in honor of the Benemérita Normal School of Coahuila, a teacher training institution, where the fossils were reposited. It is a member of the family Deinocheiridae and is the only member of that clade known from Laramidia.

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References

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  2. Ramírez-Velasco, Angel Alejandro (2022). "Phylogenetic and biogeography analysis of Mexican hadrosauroids". Cretaceous Research. 138: 105267. Bibcode:2022CrRes.13805267R. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105267. S2CID   249559319.
  3. Fowler, Denver Warwick (2017-11-22). "Revised geochronology, correlation, and dinosaur stratigraphic ranges of the Santonian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) formations of the Western Interior of North America". PLOS ONE. 12 (11): e0188426. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1288426F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188426 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   5699823 . PMID   29166406.
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  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Ramírez-Velasco, A. A.; Hernández-Rivera, R. (2015). "Diversity of late cretaceous dinosaurs from Mexico". Boletín Geológico y Minero. 126 (1): 63–108.
  7. Serrano-Brañas, Claudia Inés; Espinosa-Chávez, Belinda; Maccracken, S. Augusta; Guevara, Daniela Barrera; Torres-Rodríguez, Esperanza (2022-09-30). "First record of caenagnathid dinosaurs (Theropoda, Oviraptorosauria) from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation (Campanian, Upper Cretaceous), Coahuila, Mexico". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 119: 104046. Bibcode:2022JSAES.11904046S. doi: 10.1016/j.jsames.2022.104046 . ISSN   0895-9811.
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