Open Paleo

Barsboldia

Maryańska & Osmólska, 1981 bahrs-BOHL-dee-a

Named after Rinchen Barsbold, a well-known Mongolian paleontologist, with the Latin suffix -ia; overall meaning 'of Barsbold'.

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

Barsboldia is a genus of large hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Maastrichtian Nemegt Formation of Ömnögovi, Mongolia. It is known from a partial vertebral column, partial pelvis, and some ribs.

Under dispute

Barsboldia sicinskii was described as a lambeosaurine (Maryańska and Osmólska, 1981), but Prieto-Márquez (2010, 2011) found lambeosaurine affinity unsupported and recovered it as a saurolophine of uncertain position; the 2010 analysis prunes it from the reduced consensus.

Diagnosis

  1. Neural spines of anterior caudal vertebrae are club-like (strong, massive, oval in cross-section at mid-height and subcircular at top), unlike the rectangular-section spines of the dorsals and sacrals
  2. Sacral neural spines comparatively high, highest at mid-synsacrum, decreasing more abruptly anteriorly than posteriorly; height-to-length ratio of sacral neural spines ranges from 7 to 9
  3. Ilium very deep above the acetabulum (central body depth 325 mm); postacetabular process massive and directed upwards, giving the dorsal border a sigmoid curve in lateral view
  4. Anteromedial portion of upper iliac margin strongly curved with preacetabular process markedly deflected

Species

Barsboldia sicinskii Maryańska & Osmólska, 1981

Type species

Named for Wojciech Siciński, the technician at the Warsaw Paleobiological Institute who prepared the holotype skeleton.

Holotype
ZPAL MgD-I/110 , Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Material
Incomplete postcranial skeleton: nine posterior dorsals, nine coalesced sacrals, fifteen caudals, left ilium, six or seven thoracic ribs, fragments of tibia and fibula, left metatarsals III and IV, phalanx 3 and ungual of third pedal digit, fragments of dorsal and caudal neural spines, fragments of left and right pubis, ossified tendons
Horizon
Nemegt Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Northern Sayr, Nemegt, site 23, Ömnögovi, Mongolia

Synonyms of the genus

Name Type Reason
Umarsaurus junior subjective Treated as a synonym of Barsboldia; remains a nomen nudum.

References

  1. Maryańska, T.; Osmólska, H. (1981). First lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 26(3-1): 243-255.

    Named Barsboldia as a lambeosaurine.

    maryańska1981a
  2. Gradziński, R.; Jerzykiewicz, T. (1972). Additional geographical and geological data from the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions. Palaeontologia Polonica 27: 17-30.

    Maps the expedition's numbered Nemegt sites; its site 23 is the holotype, logged there as Saurolophus angustirostris.

    gradziński1972a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    jones2026a
  4. Prieto-Márquez, A. (2011). A reapprisal of Barsboldia sicinskii (Dinosauria, Hadrosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Journal of Paleontology 85(3): 468-477. doi:10.1666/10-106.1

    Placed Barsboldia sicinskii within Saurolophinae based on iliac and character comparisons

    prieto-márquez2011c
  5. Prieto-Márquez, A. (2010). Global phylogeny of Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) using parsimony and Bayesian methods. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 159(2): 435-502. Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00617.x

    Found lambeosaurine affinity unsupported and recovered Barsboldia within Saurolophinae.

    prieto-márquez2010c