Open Paleo

Tlatolophus

Ramírez-Velasco et al., 2021 TLAH-toh-LO-fus

From Nahuatl tlahtolli, "word" or "speech", combined with Greek lophos, "crest" — means "word crest", in reference to the speech-symbol-shaped cranial crest

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Tlatolophus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur belonging to the tribe Parasaurolophini that lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mexico. The only species is the type species, Tlatolophus galorum.

Diagnosis

  1. Skull high with length/height ratio of 1.79
  2. Premaxillary body wider with maximum/minimum width ratio about 2.4
  3. Maxilla with low dorsal apex on ascending ramus
  4. High and convex dorsal crest in pterygoid bone
  5. High and inverted-comma shaped supracranial crest, dorsocaudal region ovoid and laterally compressed
  6. Occipital condyle ventrally inclined 56 degrees
  7. Long and laminar supraoccipital crest inside deep nuchal fossa
  8. Squamosal shelf moderately long, as long as foramen magnum diameter
  9. Dorsal margins of infratemporal fenestra and orbit at same level
  10. Nasal elongated with acicular rostral end and expanded bilobed caudal end

Species

Tlatolophus galorum Ramírez-Velasco et al., 2021

Type species

Named for the Garza and López families, honoring their collaboration in collecting and preserving the holotype specimen.

Holotype
CIC/P/147 , Museo Naturalístico, Antropológico e Histórico "Jorge Gerhold"
Material
Large individual ~8 m long with almost complete skull including both premaxillae, nasals, frontals, parietals, lacrimals, prefrontals, squamosals, maxillae, pterygoids, ectopterygoids and postorbitals, left dentary, predentary, nearly complete neurocranium, semiarticulated tail and some limb bones
Horizon
Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Dinopato site, Coahuila, Mexico

References

  1. Ramírez-Velasco, A. A.; Aguilar, F. J.; Hernández-Rivera, R.; Gudiño Maussán, J. L.; Lara Rodríguez, M.; Alvarado-Ortega, J. (2021). Tlatolophus galorum, gen. et sp. nov., a parasaurolophini dinosaur from the upper Campanian of the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuila, northern Mexico. Cretaceous Research 126. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104884 ramírez-velasco2021a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026a