Open Paleo

Gasparinisaura

Coria & Salgado, 1996 gas-pah-REEN-ee-SAWR-a

Gasparini's lizard; named in honor of Argentine paleontologist Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini, combined with Greek sauros (lizard)

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Gasparinisaura is a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The first fossils of Gasparinisaura were found in 1992 near Cinco Saltos in Río Negro Province, Argentina. The type species, Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis, was named and described in 1996 by Rodolfo Coria and Leonardo Salgado. The generic name honors Argentine paleontologist Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini. The specific name refers to Cinco Saltos.

Diagnosis

  1. Lacrimal with a dorsoventrally expanded prefrontal process.
  2. Postorbital process of the jugal with a massive, quadrangular posteroventral process directed into the infratemporal fenestra.
  3. Posterior process of the jugal narrowing below the squamosal bar into a posteroventrally directed infratemporal slot, with an open foramen along its dorsal margin and an enclosed foramen in its posterior part.
  4. Squamosal strongly convex dorsally, its postorbital and postquadratic processes meeting at about 100 degrees, with the apex of the postorbital process behind the jaw articulation.
  5. Frontal with discoid-tessellate ornamentation on its lateral margin, and parietal with strap-like lateral ornamentation.
  6. Opisthotic extending much farther laterally than the postquadratic process of the squamosal, with a very large paroccipital fossa.
  7. Exits of the vagus and both hypoglossal branches closely grouped in a triangle, the vagus foramen directed posteriorly and hidden in lateral view.
  8. Prootic and basal tubera visible in lateral view behind the quadrate.
  9. Laterosphenoid with a free, laterally projecting postorbital process, contacting the skull roof only through the parietal.

Species

Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis Coria & Salgado, 1996

Type species

Named for Cinco Saltos, the town in Río Negro Province, Argentina, near which the first fossils were found.

Holotype
MUCPv-208 , Universidad Nacional del Comahue
Material
Almost complete skull with atlas and axis in articulation, sacrum, pectoral and pelvic girdles, humeri without distal ends, and almost complete hind limbs
Horizon
Anacleto Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
2 km southeast of Cinco Saltos City, Río Negro, Argentina Coria and Salgado (1996) name the horizon the Anacleto Member of the Rio Colorado Formation; Leanza and colleagues (2004) raise Anacleto to formation rank within the Rio Colorado Subgroup. Heredia and Salgado (1999) place the ornithopod-bearing beds at Cinco Saltos in an informal facies 2, recognized in earlier work on the unit.

References

  1. Coria, R. A.; Salgado, L. (1996). A basal iguanodontian (Ornithischia: Ornithopoda) from the Late Cretaceous of South America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16(3): 445-457. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/02724634.1996.10011333 coria1996a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026a
  3. Leanza, H. A.; Apesteguía, S.; Novas, F. E.; de la Fuente, M. S. (2004). Cretaceous terrestrial beds from the Neuquén Basin (Argentina) and their tetrapod assemblages. Cretaceous Research 25(1): 61-87. Elsevier BV.

    Raises Anacleto from a member of the Rio Colorado Formation to a formation within the Rio Colorado Subgroup.

    leanza2004a
  4. Heredia, S.; Salgado, L. (1999). Posición estratigráfica de los estratos supracretácicos portadores de dinosaurios en el Lago Pellegrini, Patagonia septentrional, Argentina. Ameghiniana 36(2): 229-234. heredia1999a
  5. Dieudonné, P. E.; Paulina-Carabajal, A.; Cruzado-Caballero, P. (2026). A redescription of the holotype skull of the ornithischian dinosaur Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis (Dryosauridae, Dysalotosaurinae clade nov.) and phylogenetic implications. Cretaceous Research 189: 106478. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2026.106478

    Redescribes the holotype skull and emends the diagnosis; recovers the genus in a polytomy with the specifiers of Elasmaria, which it nests within Dryosauridae.

    dieudonné2026b