Weewarrasaurus
Named after the Wee Warra geologic locality near Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, where the fossil was found, plus Greek sauros ('lizard')
Weewarrasaurus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of the Griman Creek Formation near Lightning Ridge, in New South Wales, Australia. The type and only species is W. pobeni, known from the holotype, an isolated dentary preserved in opal, as well as a secondary referred dentary. It is thought to have co-existed with multiple other ornithopods of different sizes and lineages.
Under dispute
Weewarrasaurus is a basal ornithopod whose describers (Bell and colleagues, 2018) recovered it in a polyphyletic group among taxa classically considered elasmarian, without a stable position. A close affinity with Elasmaria is plausible but unconfirmed.
Diagnosis
- Elongate dentary ramus with slot-like neurovascular foramina on lateral surface (ratio of posterior-most foramen length/height ≅ 5.0)
- Large dentary tooth crowns (ratio of apicobasal height of largest posterior crown/total dentary height ≅ 0.5)
- Closely-butting secondary apicobasal ridges with fan-like arrangement on lingual crown surface mesial and distal to primary ridge
- Weakly-developed apicobasal ridges on labial crown surface
Species
Weewarrasaurus pobeni Bell et al., 2018
Type species
Named for Mike Poben, the opal dealer from Adelaide who first recognized the holotype as a fossil and subsequently donated it to the Australian Opal Centre.
- Holotype
- LRF 3067 , Australian Opal Centre
- Material
- Partial right dentary with dentition.
- Horizon
- Wallangulla Sandstone Member, Griman Creek Formation, Cenomanian, Late Cretaceous , 100.5–93.9 million years ago
- Locality
- Wee Warra, New South Wales, Australia
References
- Bell, P. R.; Herne, M. C.; Brougham, T.; Smith, E. T. (2018). Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia. PeerJ 6: e6008. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.6008 bell2018a