Open Paleo

Arstanosaurus

Shilin & Suslov, 1982 ahr-STAHN-o-SOR-us Nomen dubium

From "Arstan" (the name of an old well at the type locality, in the northeastern Aralkum, Kazakhstan) and Greek 'sauros' (lizard); meaning 'Arstan lizard'.

85.7–72.2 million years ago Santonian–Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Arstanosaurus is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous-aged (Santonian-Campanian) Bostobe Formation of Kazakhstan. Named on a fragmentary maxilla, it was later argued to be a ceratopsid, until redescription of the type material traced that reading to a misinterpreted tooth replacement pattern and left the genus an indeterminate hadrosauroid.

Species

Arstanosaurus akkurganensis Shilin & Suslov, 1982 Nomen dubium

Type species

From the Akkurgan locality near Qyzylorda, Kazakhstan, where the holotype was collected.

Holotype
AAIZ 1/1 , Institute of Zoology, Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR
Material
Left maxilla lacking its rostral and dorsal portions, retaining some teeth, with an isolated tooth crown preserved alongside it
Horizon
Bostobe Formation, Santonian–Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 85.7–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Akkurgan, Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan Shilin and Suslov (1982) assigned the beds to the Bostobinskaya Svita on a general similarity of lithofacies with other outcrops in the region rather than on a traced correlation, and Norman and Kurzanov (1997) note that a svita and a formation are not quite the same kind of unit. The holotype came from a greenish-grey shale 1.5 to 2 m below the overlying red beds.

References

  1. Shilin, P. V.; Suslov, Y. V. (1982). A hadrosaur from the northeastern Aral region. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal (1): 131-135.

    Original description of Arstanosaurus akkurganensis on a partial left maxilla. The genus authority is attributed to Suslov in the paper, while the species authority is Suslov and Shilin.

    shilin1982a
  2. Norman, D. B.; Kurzanov, S. M. (1997). On Asian ornithopods (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). 2. Arstanosaurus akkurganensis Shilin and Suslov, 1982. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 108(3): 191-199. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/s0016-7878(97)80027-2

    Redescription of the type maxilla. Finds the original description's characters invalid and the material non-diagnostic, leaving the taxon a nomen dubium assignable only to Lambeosaurinae.

    norman1997a