Obelignathus
Named for Obelix, the fictional character from the Asterix and Obelix cartoon, combined with Greek 'gnathos' meaning 'jaw'; refers to the robust morphology of the holotype dentary likened to the strength of that character.
Obelignathus is an extinct genus of rhabdodontomorph ornithopod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous 'Grès à Reptiles' Formation of France. The genus contains a single species, O. septimanicus, known from a right dentary. The species was initially classified as a species of the coeval Rhabdodon.
Under dispute
Obelignathus septimanicus (formerly Rhabdodon septimanicus) is recovered by Czepiński and Madzia (2025) as the earliest-diverging rhabdodontomorph under implied weighting with K=15 and 21, but as an early member of the elasmarian lineage, the sister of Iyuku, under K=12 and in the most parsimonious trees of the equal-weights analysis, whose strict consensus is unresolved. The authors attribute the instability to the incomplete type dentary and consider it a probable rhabdodontoid. It is placed at Rhabdodontomorpha, their preferred position.
Diagnosis
- Dentary robust, anteroposteriorly shorter (~3x longer than high) compared to other rhabdodontomorphs (~4x)
- Absence of buccal platform lateral to alveolar row
- Absence of horizontal buccal crest due to poorly developed anterolateral ridge of coronoid process
- Coronoid process placed directly posterior to alveolar row, not laterally separated
- Coronoid process rotated lateroposteriorly; lateral and coronoid surfaces face more posteriorly and anteriorly respectively
- Meckelian canal mediolaterally and dorsoventrally deep, reaching 50% of dentary height (vs. 22-38% in other rhabdodontomorphs)
Species
Obelignathus septimanicus Czepiński & Madzia, 2025
Type species
Named for Septimania, a historic region of France corresponding to Languedoc, where the type locality in Montouliers is located, with the Latin suffix '-icus' meaning 'of' or 'pertaining to'.
- Holotype
- MDE D30 , Le Musée des Dinosaures Espéraza-Aude (Dinosaur Museum Espéraza), Espéraza, Department Aude, Region Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées
- Material
- Right dentary missing anteriormost portion
- Horizon
- Campanian–Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–66.0 million years ago
- Locality
- Montouliers, Hérault, France
References
- Czepiński, Ł.; Madzia, D. (2025). Exploring the diversity and disparity of rhabdodontomorph ornithopods from the Late Cretaceous European archipelago. Scientific Reports 15(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-98083-z czepiński2025a