Open Paleo

Ornithotarsus

Cope, 1869 Nomen dubium

From Greek 'ornis' (genitive 'ornithos', 'bird') and 'tarsos' ('ankle'), for the ankle region of the type hindlimb, in which Cope took the astragalus to be fused to the tibia as in birds.

83.6–66.0 million years ago Campanian–Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Ornithotarsus is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, near what is now Keyport, on the shores of Raritan Bay in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Species

Ornithotarsus immanis Cope, 1869 Nomen dubium

Type species

Holotype
YPM 3221 , Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Material
Articulated left distal tibia, astragalus and calcaneum, with a fragment of the distal fibula.
Notes
Collected by Samuel Lockwood, of Keyport, on the shore of Raritan Bay at Union. White (1973) and Prieto-Márquez and colleagues (2006) give the formation as the Monmouth, Horner and colleagues (2004) list the material among the Campanian Merchantville, Woodbury and Marshalltown formations, and Jones (2026) gives the Woodbury. Cope took the beds to be Lower Cretaceous.
Horizon
Campanian–Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Union, 2½ miles east of Keyport, New Jersey, United States The horizon is unsettled. Lull and Wright (1942) place the type in the Navesink, which Prieto-Márquez and colleagues (2006) call Maastrichtian, while they relay an earlier, questioned assignment to the Woodbury, which they call Campanian.

References

  1. Cope, E. D. (1869). [Remarks on Holops brevispinus, Ornithotarsus immanis, and Macrosaurus proriger]. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 21: 123.

    Erects the genus and species on hindlimb material from Raritan Bay, placing it between Hadrosaurus and Compsognathus.

    cope1869c
  2. Lull, R. S.; Wright, N. E. (1942). Hadrosaurian Dinosaurs of North America. Geological Society of America Special Papers 40: 1-272. Geological Society of America. doi:10.1130/spe40-p1

    Places the type at Union near Keyport, in the Navesink clays of their Monmouth formation.

    lull1942a
  3. White, T. E. (1973). Catalogue of the genera of dinosaurs. Annals of Carnegie Museum 44: 117-155. doi:10.5962/p.243870

    Gives the type specimen as YPM 3221 and assigns the genus to Hadrosauridae.

    white1973a
  4. Brett-Surman, M. K. (1989). A revision of the Hadrosauridae (Reptilia: Ornithischia) and their evolution during the Campanian and Maastrichtian. 1-272. Doctoral thesis, The George Washington University.

    Finds the genus undiagnostic and a nomen dubium, and notes it is not synonymous with Parasaurolophus.

    brett-surman1989a
  5. Horner, J. R.; Weishampel, D. B.; Forster, C. A. (2004). Hadrosauridae. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 438-463. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Treats the species as a synonym of Hadrosaurus foulkii, a reading later superseded.

    horner2004a
  6. Prieto-Márquez, A.; Weishampel, D. B.; Horner, J. R. (2006). The dinosaur Hadrosaurus foulkii, from the Campanian of the East Coast of North America, with a reevaluation of the genus. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51(1): 77-98. Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Paleobiologii (Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences).

    Redescribes the type, finds it lacks distinguishing characters, and refers it only to Hadrosauridae indeterminate.

    prieto-márquez2006a
  7. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Records the shift from the Hadrosaurus synonymy to nomen dubium.

    jones2026a