Nipponosaurus
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| Nipponosaurus sachalinensis Nagao, 1936 |
Nipponosaurus ("Japanese lizard") is a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid from Asia. The holotype (UHR 6590, University of Hokkaidō Registration) was discovered in November 1934 during the construction of a hospital on Karafuto Prefecture (now Sinegorsk, Sakhalin, Russia), and additional material belonging to the specimen was recovered in the summer of 1937. UHR 6590 consists of a left maxilla and dentary, parietal, various isolated skull elements, cervical vertebrae, six dorsal vertebrae, two sacral vertebrae, a left scapula, distal portions of both humeri, other forelimbs elements, an ischium, left ilium, and most of the hindlimbs. The specimen was collected from Upper Yezo Group ("Upper Ammonites Bed) (late Santonian—early Campanian). Though the quality of bone preservation is generally poor, the skeleton is estimated to be 60% complete. It remains one of the most poorly known lambeosaurine dinosaurs.
Nipponosaurus was recently redescribed by Suzuki et al. (2004), who diagnosed the taxon as follows: "Roboust coronoid process of the surangular, only slight development of the neural spine of the axis, and strong deflection of the lateral margin of the first phalanx of digit IV."
Suzuki et al. (2004) have determined that the holotype represents a subadult indivudual, measuring roughly 7.6 meters in length. A cladistic analysis (Suzuki et al., 2004; pp. 160-161) places Nippponosaurus sachalinensis very close to the well-known North American lambeosaurine Hypacrosaurus.
[edit] References
- Nagao, T. 1936. Nipponosaurus sachalinensis - A new genus and species of trachodont dinosaur from Japanese Saghalien. J. Faculty Sci. Hokkaido Imperial Univ. Ser. IV (2): 187-220
- Nagao, T. 1938. On the limb bones of Nipponosaurus sachaliensis Nagao, a Japanese hadrosaurian dinosaur. Annot. Zool. Japan 17(3/4):312-318.
- Suzuki D., Weishampel D. B., and Minoura N. 2004. Nippponosaurus sachalinensis (Dinosauria; Ornithopoda): anatomy and systematic position within Hadrosauridae. Journal of Vertebrate Paleoentology 24(1):145-164.
