Open Paleo

Batyrosaurus

Godefroit et al., 2012 bah-TEE-row-SOR-us

From Kazakh batyr meaning 'hero warrior' combined with Greek sauros meaning 'lizard'. Full meaning: 'Batyr (Kazakh hero warrior) lizard'.

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

Batyrosaurus is an extinct genus of herbivorous basal hadrosauroid dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Bostobe Formation (Santonian to Campanian stage) of central Kazakhstan. It contains a single species, Batyrosaurus rozhdestvenskyi. It is possible that Batyrosaurus represents the same taxon as the doubtful Arstanosaurus akkurganensis as both were found from the same formation.

Under dispute

Batyrosaurus rozhdestvenskyi was described as a basal hadrosauroid (Godefroit and colleagues, 2012), and most later analyses recover it there, often as the sister of Penelopognathus (Verdú and colleagues, 2017; Lockwood and colleagues, 2021; Poole, 2022; Bonsor and colleagues, 2023). Analyses on Norman's matrix instead place it as the earliest-diverging styracosternan, outside Hadrosauriformes (Gasulla and colleagues, 2015; Norman, 2015).

Diagnosis

  1. Parietal forming long caudal lappets that overlie the supraoccipital and are overlain by the squamosals, but remain well separated from the paroccipital wings.
  2. Frontals rostrocaudally elongated, approximately 1.7 times longer than wide.
  3. Lateral side of rostral process of jugal bearing a deep horizontal sulcus below the lacrimal facet.
  4. Glenoid surface of surangular perforated by a foramen.

Species

Batyrosaurus rozhdestvenskyi Godefroit et al., 2012

Type species

Named for Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky, a Russian paleontologist.

Holotype
AEHM 4/1 , Amur Natural History Museum of the Institute of Geology and Nature Management, Russian Academy of Sciences
Material
Partial skull and mandible, ~60 isolated teeth, paired sternals, right humerus, left radius, fragmentary metacarpals, and manual phalanges.
Horizon
Bostobe Formation, Santonian–Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 85.7–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Akkurgan, Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan

References

  1. Godefroit, P.; Escuillié, F.; Bolotsky, Y. L.; Lauters, P. (2012). A new basal hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Kazakhstan. Bernissart Dinosaurs and Early Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems (Godefroit, P., ed.) 334-358. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

    Named Batyrosaurus and recovered it as a basal hadrosauroid, more primitive than Probactrosaurus.

    godefroit2012a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length estimate.

    jones2026a
  3. Norman, D. B. (2015). On the history, osteology, and systematic position of the Wealden (Hastings group) dinosaur Hypselospinus fittoni (Iguanodontia: Styracosterna). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 173: 92-189. doi:10.1111/zoj.12193

    Recovered Batyrosaurus as the most basal styracosternan, and used it as a specifier of a node-based Styracosterna.

    norman2015a
  4. Verdú, F. J.; Royo-Torres, R.; Cobos, A.; Alcalá, L. (2017). New systematic and phylogenetic data about the early Barremian Iguanodon galvensis (Ornithopoda: Iguanodontoidea) from Spain. Historical Biology 30(4): 437-474. doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1287179

    Recovered Batyrosaurus as a hadrosauroid, the sister of Proa, rejecting its placement among Norman's iguanodontoids.

    verdú2017a
  5. Lockwood, J. A. F.; Martill, D. M.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2021). A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Wessex Formation, Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous), of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 19(12): 847-888. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2021.1978005

    Recovered Batyrosaurus as the sister of Penelopognathus within Hadrosauriformes.

    lockwood2021a
  6. Poole, K. E. (2022). Phylogeny of iguanodontian dinosaurs and the evolution of quadrupedality. Palaeontologia Electronica 25(3): a30. doi:10.26879/702

    Recovered Batyrosaurus as a basal hadrosauroid.

    poole2022a
  7. Bonsor, J. A.; Lockwood, J. A. F.; Leite, J. V.; Scott-Murray, A.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2023). The osteology of the holotype of the British iguanodontian dinosaur Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis. Monographs of the Palaeontographical Society 177(665): 1-63. doi:10.1080/02693445.2023.2234156

    Recovered Batyrosaurus as the sister of Penelopognathus.

    bonsor2023a
  8. Gasulla, J. M.; Escaso, F.; Narváez, I.; Ortega, F.; Sanz, J. L. (2015). A New Sail-Backed Styracosternan (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Early Cretaceous of Morella, Spain. PLOS ONE 10(12): e0144167. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144167

    Recovered Batyrosaurus as the most basal styracosternan on Norman's matrix.

    gasulla2015a