Open Paleo

Willinakaqe

Juárez Valieri et al., 2010 eel-yee-nah-KAH-gay Nomen dubium

From Mapuche willi ('south'), iná ('mimic'), and kaqe ('duck'), meaning 'Southern duck-mimic'

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

Willinakaqe is a dubious genus of saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur described based on fossils from the late Cretaceous (late Campanian-early Maastrichtian stage) of the Río Negro Province of southern Argentina.

Under dispute

Cruzado-Caballero and Coria (2016) revised Willinakaqe salitralensis and found that the referred material may represent more than one hadrosaurid taxon, that all characters of the original diagnosis are invalid, and that the holotype right premaxilla (MPCA-PV SM 8) is itself too weathered and incomplete to support a diagnosis. They termed the species a nomen vanum; because the holotype is simply undiagnostic rather than a chimera, it is treated as a nomen dubium.

Species

Willinakaqe salitralensis Juárez Valieri et al., 2010 Nomen dubium

Type species

Named for the Salitral, the locality in Río Negro Province, Argentina, where the holotype was found.

Holotype
MPCA-PV SM 8 , Museo provincial de Cipolletti "Carlos Ameghino"
Material
Right premaxilla; too weathered and incomplete to be diagnostic
Horizon
lower Allen Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Salitral Moreno, Río Negro, Argentina

References

  1. Juárez Valieri, R. D.; Haro, J. A.; Fiorelli, L. E.; Calvo, J. O. (2010). A new hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Allen Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Patagonia, Argentina. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, nueva serie 12(2): 217-231. doi:10.22179/revmacn.12.242 juárezvalieri2010a
  2. Cruzado-Caballero, P.; Coria, R. A. (2016). Revisiting the hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) diversity of the Allen Formation: a re-evaluation of Willinakaqe salitralensis from Salitral Moreno, Río Negro Province, Argentina. Ameghiniana 53(2): 231-237. doi:10.5710/AMGH.25.09.2015.2943

    Revised the taxon; found the original diagnostic characters invalid, the referred material possibly multi-taxon, and the holotype premaxilla too weathered and incomplete to diagnose.

    cruzado-caballero2016a