Adynomosaurus

Prieto-Márquez et al., 2019 ah-dee-no-mo-sor-us

From Greek 'adynamos' meaning 'weak' or 'powerless' and 'sauros' meaning 'lizard', referring to its underdeveloped shoulder musculature.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Adynomosaurus is a genus of lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now Catalonia, Spain. First discovered in 2012, it was named in 2019 with the type and only species being Adynomosaurus arcanus. It is only known from scant material, but is distinguished from other hadrosaurs by its weakly developed shoulder blade which would have had underdeveloped musculature, which lends it its scientific name, partially from the Greek word for "weak". Its exact relationships with other hadrosaurs remain unresolved, with it not consistently being recovered as a relative of any other specific genera, though some studies have allied it with Tsintaosaurini or even found it outside of Hadrosauridae. It would have lived as part of a diverse coastal estuary ecosystem, made up of meandering rivers and mud flats. The discovery of Adynomosaurus adds to the very incomplete fossil record of hadrosaurid dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of Europe, and it fits into a picture of major ecological turnover that was occurring during the Maastrichtian stage in the region.

Diagnosis

  1. Scapula with shallow blade: maximum depth of distal scapular blade is less than 75% of the depth of the proximal end (measured from dorsal margin of acromion process to ventral apex of glenoid).

Species

Adynomosaurus arcanus Prieto-Márquez et al., 2019

Type species

From Latin 'arcanus' meaning 'secret' or 'occult', referring to the scant and uninformative nature of the hadrosaur fossil record from the South-Central Pyrenean Basin.

Holotype
MCD 7125 , Museu de la Conca Dellà
Material
Left scapula.
Horizon
Conques Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Costa de les Solanes, near Basturs village, Lleida, Spain

References

  1. Prieto-Márquez, A.; Fondevilla, V.; Sellés, A. G.; Wagner, J. R.; Galobart, À. (2019). Adynomosaurus arcanus, a new lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Ibero-Armorican Island of the European archipelago. Cretaceous Research 96: 19-37. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.12.002

    Reads the holotype horizon as an oxbow lake facies associated with meandering stream deposits, above the lacustrine limestones of the Basturs Member.

    prieto-márquez2019a