Open Paleo

Kelumapusaura

Rozadilla et al., 2021

From Mapudungun kelumapu (red earth) combined with Greek sauros (lizard); meaning "red earth lizard"

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

Kelumapusaura is a genus of saurolophine hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous Allen Formation in what is now Patagonia in Argentina. The type and only species is K. machi, known from a bonebed of various individuals.

Diagnosis

  1. Shallow maxilla compared to dentary dorsoventral height
  2. Maxilla with dorsoventrally low medial surface dorsal to medial row of foramina
  3. Maxilla with groove forming constriction on anteroventral process
  4. Dentary symphysis with anteriorly oriented sub-triangular processes with deep anterior groove in bilobate outline
  5. Anterior dentary end with crescent-shaped concavity on lateral surface
  6. First sacral with anterior articular surfaces strongly obliquely oriented and anterodorsally facing
  7. Postorbital with short to absent medial process on skull roof

Species

Kelumapusaura machi Rozadilla et al., 2021

Type species

Named for the machi, a word from the Mapuche people of Patagonia meaning 'shaman'.

Holotype
MPCN-PV-807 , Museo Patagónico de Ciencias Naturales
Material
Partial skull with left maxilla and teeth, right prefrontal, right postorbital, left pterygoid, left prootic, predentary, mandibular teeth, left dentary, cervical vertebra, sacrum, caudal neural arch, sternal plate and sternal rib
Horizon
upper Allen Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Matadero Hill, Arriagada Farm, Río Negro, Argentina

References

  1. Rozadilla, S.; Brissón Egli, F.; Agnolín, F. L.; Aranciaga Rolando, A. M.; Novas, F. E. (2021). A new hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Late Cretaceous of northern Patagonia and the radiation of South American hadrosaurids. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 19(17): 1207-1235. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2021.2020917 rozadilla2021a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    jones2026a