Open Paleo

Penelopognathus

Godefroit et al., 2005 pen-el-o-pog-nay-thus

From Greek penelops (wild duck) and gnathos (jaw); meaning "wild duck jaw".

121.4–100.5 million years ago Aptian–Albian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Penelopognathus is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur which lived in the Early Cretaceous Bayin-Gobi Formation in what is now China. The discovery of this taxon contributes to the hypothesis that hadrosauroids originated in Asia.

Diagnosis

  1. Elongated dental ramus with length/height ratio of 4.6
  2. Straight ventral margin of the dentary
  3. About 20 irregularly distributed foramina piercing the lateral face
  4. Dentary teeth showing miniaturisation compared to Altirhinus but more advanced

Species

Penelopognathus weishampeli Godefroit et al., 2005

Type species

Named for David Weishampel, the paleontologist honored by the describers Godefroit, Li, and Shang when the species was named in 2005.

Holotype
IMM 2002-BYGB-1 , Inner Mongolia Museum, Hohhot
Material
Right dentary, elongated and straight dental ramus with lateral foramina
Horizon
Bayin-Gobi Formation, Aptian–Albian, Early Cretaceous , 121.4–100.5 million years ago
Locality
Qiriga Village, Inner Mongolia, China Godefroit and colleagues (2005) give "Bayan Gobi Formation (Albian)" because the formation's fauna at the Alxasaurus sites "suggests an Albian age"; no source read dates the Qiriga beds themselves, so the record takes the formation's Aptian-Albian.

References

  1. Godefroit, P.; Li, H.; Shang, C. Y. (2005). A new primitive hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia (P.R. China). Comptes Rendus Palevol 4(8): 697-705. Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2005.07.004

    Named Penelopognathus as a basal hadrosauroid between Altirhinus and Probactrosaurus, without a phylogenetic analysis.

    godefroit2005a
  2. Magyar, J.; Ősi, A.; Csiki-Sava, Z.; Budai, S.; Botfalvai, G. (2026). New early Maastrichtian 'duck-billed' dinosaur from Hațeg Basin (Densuș-Ciula Formation, Romania) documents an endemic clade of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids in the south-eastern Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 24(1): 2607800. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2607800

    Places Penelopognathus in an East Asian clade of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids.

    magyar2026a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Penelopognathus as a basal hadrosauroid.

    jones2026a
  4. McDonald, A. T.; Wolfe, D. G.; Kirkland, J. I. (2010). A new basal hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Turonian of New Mexico. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(3): 799-812. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/02724631003763516

    Recovered Penelopognathus among basal hadrosauroids, supporting the position Godefroit and colleagues (2005) proposed.

    mcdonald2010a