Kritosaurus

Kritosaurus
Live reconstruction of Kritosaurus navajovius
Temporal occurrence
Upper Cretaceous (Upper Campanium to Lower Maastrichtian )
76.4 to 69.9 million years
Locations
North America
Systematics
Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Hadrosaurs (Hadrosauridae) Hadrosaurinae Kritosaurus
Scientific name
Kritosaurus
Brown , 1910
species
Kritosaurus navajovius Kritosaurus horneri  ?

Kritosaurus is a genus of dinosaurs from the group of Hadrosauridae . Fossils were discovered on the North American continent and are dated to the late Upper Cretaceous (late Campanium to early Maastrichtian). The only recognized species of Kritosaurus comes from the Kirtland Formation in Ojo Alamo, New Mexico .

etymology

The name Kritosaurus is Greek and means roughly "separated lizard" in German. This alludes to the unusual head and nose region.

description

Skull of Kritosaurus

Kritosaurus was a herbivore about ten meters long that probably moved both quadruped (four-legged) and biped (two-legged). According to the latest estimates, the weight is likely to have been up to four tons. The skull shows an enlarged, slightly arched nose region. This hump nose can be used to distinguish Kritosaurus from other hadrosaurids. This hump could have been used for species identification, sexual identification and intra-species fights. The animal shows a number of similarities with Gryposaurus - for a long time both genera were regarded as the same genus.

Systematics and discovery

Kritosaurus is placed within the family Hadrosauridae to the subfamily Hadrosaurinae , the subfamily without hollow head crests. The genus is assigned to the Kritosaurini tribe . In addition to the type species K. navajovius , in 1993 the scientists Hunt and Lucas described Kritosaurus horneri . The assignment is treated controversially, so the animal is partially assigned to the new genus Anasazisaurus .

The only bone finds of Kritosaurus are an incomplete and partially eroded skull with a lower jaw (holotype: AMNH 5799). The discoverer Barnum Brown used a second skull to describe it, which was later assigned to Anatotitan . The skull was found in the Kirtland Formation in Ojo Alamo, New Mexico .

swell

• Barnum Brown's detailed report on the first discovery

Web links

Commons : Kritosaurus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gregory S. Paul: The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs , 2010. ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 307 Online ( Memento of the original of July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Benjamin S. Creisler: Deciphering duckbills . In: Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.) (Eds.): Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs . Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 2007, ISBN 0-253-34817-X , pp. 185-210.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Kritosaurus navajovius ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Dinosaurier-Info.de.