Open Paleo

Kangnasaurus

Haughton, 1915 KANG-nuh-SAWR-us Disputed

Named after Farm Kangnas in the Orange River valley of northern Cape Province, South Africa; meaning "Farm Kangnas lizard"

100.5–66.0 million years ago Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Kangnasaurus is a genus of elasmarian ornithopod dinosaur found in Late Cretaceous rocks of South Africa. It is known from a tooth and possibly some postcranial remains dating between the middle-Campanian to Maastrichtian Kalahari Deposits Formation.

Under dispute

Norman (2004) considers Kangnasaurus coetzeei a nomen dubium, while Forster and colleagues (2023) note that the material certainly pertains to Iguanodontia and that it has also been treated as a valid iguanodontian, as the analyses since 2020 treat it. Cooper (1985) allied it with Dryosaurus; later analyses recover it as an elasmarian (Fonseca and colleagues 2024; Dieudonné and colleagues 2026), within a rhabdodontoid clade (Poole, 2022), or outside Dryosauridae (Rocchi and colleagues 2026). It is placed at Iguanodontia incertae sedis.

Species

Kangnasaurus coetzeei Haughton, 1915 Disputed

Type species

Named for the farmer Coetzee, on whose farm (Farm Kangnas) the holotype tooth was discovered.

Holotype
SAM 2732 , Iziko South African Museum
Material
Maxillary tooth with worn oblique crown and cylindrical root; nearly complete right femur with strongly curved shaft
Horizon
Late Cretaceous , 100.5–66.0 million years ago
Locality
well, farm Kangnas, portion Goebees, Northern Cape, South Africa Weishampel and colleagues (2004) give the horizon as the Kalahari Deposits, which none of the works cited for this taxon recognizes as a formation. De Wit and colleagues (1992) read the deposit as fill in a crater lake above a Late Cretaceous olivine-melilitite intrusion.

References

  1. Haughton, S. H. (1915). On some dinosaur remains from Bushmanland. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 5(1): 259-264. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/00359191509519723

    Original description, giving no age for the material.

    haughton1915a
  2. de Wit, M. C. J.; Ward, J. D.; Spaggiari, R. (1992). A reappraisal of the Kangnas dinosaur site, Bushmanland, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 88: 504-507.

    Prints the coordinate for the Goebees well.

    dewit1992a
  3. Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H. (eds.) (2004). The Dinosauria, Second Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Lists the Kalahari Deposits as the horizon, citing Haughton and Cooper.

    weishampel2004a
  4. Norman, D. B. (2004). Basal Iguanodontia. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 413-437. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Lists Kangnasaurus coetzeei among the nomina dubia of basal Iguanodontia.

    norman2004a
  5. Forster, C. A.; de Klerk, W. J.; Poole, K. E.; Chinsamy-Turan, A.; Roberts, E. M.; Ross, C. F. (2023). Iyuku raathi, a new iguanodontian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Kirkwood Formation, South Africa. The Anatomical Record 306(7): 1762-1803. Wiley. doi:10.1002/ar.25038

    Notes that the material certainly pertains to an iguanodontian and that its validity has been both doubted and accepted.

    forster2023a
  6. Cooper, M. R. (1985). A revision of the ornithischian dinosaur Kangnasaurus coetzeei Haughton, with a classification of the Ornithischia. Annals of the South African Museum 95: 281-317.

    Transfers Kangnasaurus from the iguanodontids to a position most closely allied to Dryosaurus.

    cooper1985a
  7. Fonseca, A. O.; Reid, I. J.; Venner, A.; Duncan, R. J.; Garcia, M. S.; Müller, R. T. (2024). A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis on early ornithischian evolution. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 22: 2346577. doi:10.1080/14772019.2024.2346577

    Recovers Kangnasaurus within Elasmaria, as one of its earliest members under implied weighting.

    fonseca2024a
  8. Dieudonné, P.; Becerra, M. G.; Zanesco, T.; Tortosa, T.; Cruzado-Caballero, P.; Stein, K.; Torcida Fernández-Baldor, F. (2026). Foskeia pelendonum, a new rhabdodontomorph from the Lower Cretaceous of Salas de los Infantes (Burgos Province, Spain), and a new phylogeny of ornithischian dinosaurs. Papers in Palaeontology 12(1). Wiley. doi:10.1002/spp2.70057

    Recovers Kangnasaurus in an unresolved polytomy with the elasmarians.

    dieudonné2026a
  9. Poole, K. E. (2022). Phylogeny of iguanodontian dinosaurs and the evolution of quadrupedality. Palaeontologia Electronica 25(3): a30. doi:10.26879/702

    Recovers Kangnasaurus within a Rhabdodontoidea alongside Rhabdodontidae, Tenontosaurus and Muttaburrasaurus.

    poole2022a
  10. Rocchi, R.; Rotatori, F. M.; Ferreira, G. S.; Fanti, F. (2026). An exquisitely preserved young iguanodontian from the Upper Jurassic of Tanzania sheds light on skeletal fusion patterns within Archosauria. Papers in Palaeontology 12(3): e70085. Wiley. doi:10.1002/spp2.70085

    Recovers Kangnasaurus outside Dryosauridae.

    rocchi2026a