Open Paleo

Pararhabdodon

Casanovas-Cladellas et al., 1993 PAR-a-RAB-do-don

From Greek 'para' meaning 'near' or 'beside' combined with the genus name Rhabdodon (meaning 'fluted tooth'); translates as 'near fluted tooth', indicating its close relationship to Rhabdodon.

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

Pararhabdodon is a genus of tsintaosaurin hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Maastrichtian-aged (Late Cretaceous) Tremp Group of Spain. The first remains were discovered from the Sant Romà d'Abella fossil locality and assigned to the genus Rhabdodon, and later named as the distinct species Pararhabdodon isonense in 1993, a spelling later corrected to isonensis. Known material includes assorted postcranial remains, mostly vertebrae, as well as maxillae from the skull. Specimens from other sites, including remains from France, a maxilla previously considered the distinct taxon Koutalisaurus kohlerorum, an additional maxilla from another locality, the material assigned to the genera Blasisaurus and Arenysaurus, and the extensive Basturs Poble bonebed have been considered at different times to belong to the species, but all of these assignments have more recently been questioned. It was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs known from the fossil record that went extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

Diagnosis

  1. Maxilla with a greatly elevated jugal joint, the distance from its ventral margin to the ectopterygoid-shelf ridge at least equal to the dorsoventral depth of the caudal maxilla
  2. Subvertical, concave lateral surface of the maxilla ventral to the jugal joint
  3. Craniocaudally broad dorsal process of the maxilla
  4. Proximal half of the humerus medially offset about 30° from its long axis

Species

Pararhabdodon isonensis Casanovas-Cladellas et al., 1993

Type species

Named for Isona, the town in the Spanish Pyrenees near the Sant Romà d'Abella fossil locality where the holotype material was excavated.

Holotype
IPS SRA 1 , Institut Català de Paleontologia "Miquel Crusafont", Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Material
Nearly complete middle-posterior cervical vertebra.
Horizon
Talarn Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Sant Romà d'Abella, Lleida, Spain

Synonyms

  • Pararhabdodon isonense emended spelling

    The original spelling of Casanovas-Cladellas and colleagues (1993); corrected to isonensis in 1997, as Prieto-Márquez and colleagues (2006) record.

Synonyms of the genus

Name Type Reason
Koutalisaurus possible subjective Prieto-Marquez and colleagues (2006) erected Koutalisaurus for a dentary previously referred to Pararhabdodon isonensis, the two being too far apart stratigraphically and spatially to compare, while remaining open to synonymy should comparable material be found.

References

  1. Casanovas-Cladellas, M. L.; Santafé-Llopis, J. V.; Isidro-Llorens, A. (1993). Pararhabdodon isonense n. gen. n. sp. (Dinosauria). Estudio morfológico, radio-tomográfico y consideraciones biomecanicas [Pararhabdodon isonense n. gen. n. sp. (Dinosauria). Morphology, radio-tomographic study, and biomechanic considerations]. Paleontologia i Evolució 26-27: 121-131.

    In Spanish.

    casanovas-cladellas1993a
  2. Prieto-Márquez, A.; Gaete, R.; Rivas, G.; Galobart, À.; Boada, M. (2006). Hadrosauroid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Spain: Pararhabdodon isonensis revisited and Koutalisaurus kohlerorum, gen. et sp. nov. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26(4): 929-943.

    Redescription of Pararhabdodon isonensis with an emended diagnosis, restricting the taxon to the Sant Romà d'Abella material; also erects Koutalisaurus kohlerorum.

    prieto-márquez2006b
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    jones2026a