Tethyshadros
Holotype of Tethyshadros
Tethyshadros (German: " hadrosaur from the Tethys " ) is a dinosaur from the group of hadrosaur, whose well-preserved fossil remains found in the Liburnian formation at Villaggio del Pescatore in the northeastern Italian province of Trieste and described in 2009.
The only way is Tethyshadros insularis. The fossils will be dated to an age of about 76 to 69 million years into the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian to early Maastrichtian ).
The holotype, with the catalog number SC 57021, is in the anatomical connection found, perfectly preserved skeleton. It is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever found. The habitat of Tethyshadros in the Upper Cretaceous was formed by the Adriatic- Dinaric carbonate platform and today's Bahamas archipelago in the Mesozoic Tethys similar. They had a maximum land area of about 100,000 km ², about the size of Cuba.
Features
Tethyshadros was about four feet long and is perhaps an example of a Inselverzwergung. The skeleton combined primitive and advanced, derived characteristics. The skull of the holotype is 47.5 cm long, 18.5 cm high and, with the exception of that of Edmontosaurus, elongated than those of any other hadrosaur.
System
Tethyshadros is phylogenetically and morphologically close to the highly developed Hadrosaurierunterfamilien Hadrosaurinae and Lambeosaurinae however, none of the subfamilies are assigned. The probable systematic position of Tethyshadros are following cladogram again:
Telmatosaurus
Tethyshadros
Hadrosaurinae
Lambeosaurinae
Probably the European hadrosaur not developed on the continent and populated Europe not from North America, but by island hopping from Asia.
Source
- Dalla Vecchia, FM, 2009: Tethyshadros insularis, a new hadrosauroid dinosaur ( Ornithischia ) from the Upper Cretaceous of Italy. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29: page 1100-1116, doi: 10.1671/039.029.0428