Kerberosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, | |
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Life restoration | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | † Ornithischia |
Clade: | † Ornithopoda |
Family: | † Hadrosauridae |
Subfamily: | † Saurolophinae |
Genus: | † Kerberosaurus Bolotsky and Godefroit, 2004 |
Species: | †K. manakini |
Binomial name | |
†Kerberosaurus manakini Bolotsky & Godefroit, 2004 | |
Synonyms | |
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Kerberosaurus (meaning "Kerberos lizard") was a genus of saurolophine duckbill dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Tsagayan Formation of Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region, Russia (dated to 66 million years ago). [2] It is based on bonebed material including skull remains indicating that it was related to Saurolophus and Prosaurolophus .
In 1984, Yuri Bolotsky and the Amur Complex Integrated Research Institute discovered a large dinosaur bonebed at Blagoveschensk. Most of the remains were of Amurosaurus (a lambeosaurine hadrosaur), but some came from turtles, crocodilians, theropods, nodosaurids, and a new hadrosaurine. [3] For the hadrosaurine, cranial material (holotype AENM 1/319, braincase, plus others) was distinctive enough to permit the naming of a new genus. Kerberosaurus manakini would be described twenty years later.
Diagnostic characters included narrow frontals, unique form of the braincase, and a well-demarcated division between the area of bone surrounding the nostrils and the bone outside of it. [3] No reconstruction of the fragmentary partial skull was offered. In their cladistic analysis, the authors found Kerberosaurus to be the sister taxon to Saurolophus and Prosaurolophus. [3] It's been estimated to be around 8 meters (26 ft) in length. [4]
Bolotsky and Godefroit (2004) found the paleobiogeographic implications interesting. The relationship they described provides additional support for land links and faunal interchange between eastern Asia and North America at the end of the Cretaceous, as the other two genera are either known only in North America or are known from a species there. The "sauroloph" group would have had to split from the nest closest group, the "edmontosaur" group, in the early Campanian, from Asia, and moved west while leaving a splinter population that would lead to Kerberosaurus, then return to Asia at a later point and produce Saurolophus angustirostris. [3]
As a hadrosaurid, Kerberosaurus would have been a large bipedal\quadrupedal herbivore, consuming plant matter with complex dental batteries. [5]
Parasaurolophus is a genus of hadrosaurid "duck-billed" dinosaur that lived in what is now western North America and possibly Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about 76.5–73 million years ago. It was a herbivore that could move as both as a biped and as a quadruped. Three species are universally recognized: P. walkeri, P. tubicen, and the short-crested P. cyrtocristatus. Additionally, a fourth species, P. jiayinensis, has been proposed, although it is more commonly placed in the separate genus Charonosaurus. Remains are known from Alberta, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as possibly Heilongjiang if Charonosaurus is in fact part of the genus. The genus was first described in 1922 by William Parks from a skull and partial skeleton found in Alberta.
Saurolophus is a genus of large hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of Asia and North America, that lived in what is now the Horseshoe Canyon and Nemegt formations about 70 million to 66 million years ago. It is one of the few genera of dinosaurs known from multiple continents. The type species, S. osborni, was described by Barnum Brown in 1912 from Canadian fossils. A second valid species, S. angustirostris, is represented by numerous specimens from Mongolia, and was described by Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky.
Shantungosaurus is a genus of very large saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur found in the Late Cretaceous Wangshi Group of the Shandong Peninsula in China, containing a single species, Shantungosaurus giganteus. The stratigraphic interval of Shantungosaurus ranges from the top of the Xingezhuang Formation to the middle of the Hongtuya Formation, middle to late Campanian in age. Shantungosaurus is so far the largest hadrosauroid taxon in the world, reaching between 15 metres (49 ft) to 16.6 metres (54 ft) in length and 13 metric tons to 16 metric tons in body mass.
Kritosaurus is an incompletely known genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It lived about 74.5-66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. The name means "separated lizard", but is often mistranslated as "noble lizard" in reference to the presumed "Roman nose".
Aralosaurus was a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Kazakhstan. It is known only by a posterior half of a skull and some post-cranial bones found in the Bostobe Formation in rocks dated from the Upper Santonian-Lower Campanian boundary, at about 83.6 Ma. Only one species is known, Aralosaurus tuberiferus, described by Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky in 1968. The genus name means Aral Sea lizard, because it was found to the northeast of the Aral Sea. The specific epithet tuberiferus means bearing a tuber because the posterior part of the nasal bone rises sharply in front of the orbits like an outgrowth. Aralosaurus was originally reconstituted with a nasal arch similar to that of North American Kritosaurus. For many years, Aralosaurus was thus placed in the clade of the Hadrosaurinae. This classification was invalidated in 2004, following the re-examination of the skull of the animal which allowed to identify in Aralosaurus many typical characters of Lambeosaurinae. In particular, this study revealed that Aralosaurus had a hollow bony structure located far in front of the orbits, which communicated with the respiratory tract. This structure being broken at its base, its shape and size remains undetermined. More recently, Aralosaurus has been identified as the most basal Lambeosaurinae, and placed with its close relative Canardia from the upper Maastrichtian of France in the new clade of Aralosaurini.
Olorotitan was a genus of lambeosaurine duckbilled dinosaur from the middle or latest Maastrichtian-age Late Cretaceous, whose remains were found in the Udurchukan Formation beds of Kundur, Amur River Region, Far Eastern Russia. The type, and only species is Olorotitan arharensis. It was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs and it went extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Amurosaurus is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur found in the latest Cretaceous period of eastern Asia. Fossil bones of adults are rare, but an adult would most likely have been at least 6 metres (20 ft) long. According to Gregory S. Paul, it was about 8 metres (26 ft) long and weighed about 3,000 kilograms (6,600 lb).
Arstanosaurus is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Santonian-Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Bostobe Formation, Kazakhstan. It has had a confusing history, being considered both a hadrosaurid and a ceratopsid, or both at the same time (chimeric).
Charonosaurus is a genus of dinosaur whose fossils were discovered by Godefroit, Zan & Jin in 2000, on the south bank of the Amur River, dividing China from Russia. It is monotypic, consisting of the species C. jiayinensis.
Prosaurolophus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. It is known from the remains of at least 25 individuals belonging to two species, including skulls and skeletons, but it remains obscure. Its fossils have been found in the late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, and the roughly contemporaneous Two Medicine Formation in Montana, dating to around 75.5-74.0 million years ago. Its most recognizable feature is a small solid crest formed by the nasal bones, sticking up in front of the eyes.
Naashoibitosaurus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived about 73 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, and was found in the Kirtland Formation of the San Juan Basin in New Mexico, United States. Only a partial skeleton has been found to date. It was first described as a specimen of Kritosaurus by Jack Horner, and has been intertwined with Kritosaurus since its description.
Saurolophinae is a subfamily of hadrosaurid dinosaurs. It has since the mid-20th century generally been called the Hadrosaurinae, a group of largely non-crested hadrosaurs related to the crested sub-family Lambeosaurinae. However, the name Hadrosaurinae is based on the genus Hadrosaurus which was found in more recent studies to be more primitive than either lambeosaurines or other traditional "hadrosaurines", like Edmontosaurus and Saurolophus. As a result of this, the name Hadrosaurinae was dropped or restricted to Hadrosaurus alone, and the subfamily comprising the traditional "hadrosaurines" was renamed the Saurolophinae. Recent phylogenetic work by Hai Xing indicates that Hadrosaurus is placed within the monophyletic group containing all non-lambeosaurine hadrosaurids. Under this view, the traditional Hadrosaurinae is resurrected, with the Hadrosauridae being divided into two clades: Hadrosaurinae and Lambeosaurinae.
Saurolophini is a tribe of saurolophine hadrosaurids native to the Americas and Asia. It includes Saurolophus, Augustynolophus, and Prosaurolophus. Kerberosaurus and Kundurosaurus may also be members. Bonapartesaurus, a hadrosaurid from Argentina, also has been identified as a member of this tribe.
Edmontosaurini are a tribe of saurolophine hadrosaur dinosaurs that lived in the Northern Hemisphere during the Late Cretaceous period. It currently contains Edmontosaurus, Shantungosaurus and Laiyangosaurus, and Kamuysaurus. Kerberosaurus and Kundurosaurus from Russia could also be members, though they are more likely saurolophins.
Edmontosaurus regalis is a species of comb-crested hadrosaurid dinosaur. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks of western North America that date from the late Campanian age of the Cretaceous Period 73 million years ago, but it may have possibly lived into the early Maastrichtian.
Wulagasaurus is a genus of saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang, China.
Sahaliyania is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang, China.
Kundurosaurus is an extinct genus of saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur known from the Latest Cretaceous of Amur Region, Far Eastern Russia. It contains a single species, Kundurosaurus nagornyi.
This timeline of hadrosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the hadrosauroids, a group of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaurs popularly known as the duck-billed dinosaurs. Scientific research on hadrosaurs began in the 1850s, when Joseph Leidy described the genera Thespesius and Trachodon based on scrappy fossils discovered in the western United States. Just two years later he published a description of the much better-preserved remains of an animal from New Jersey that he named Hadrosaurus.
Arenysaurini is a proposed tribe of primitive lambeosaurine hadrosaurs. It is composed of genera found in Europe and North Africa during the end of the Cretaceous period, and has been suggested to unite all lambeosaurs from the former continent into a singular monophyletic group.