Wulagasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 65.5 Ma |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Superorder: | Dinosauria |
Order: | †Ornithischia |
Suborder: | †Ornithopoda |
Family: | †Hadrosauridae |
Node: | †Euhadrosauria |
Subfamily: | †Saurolophinae |
Genus: | †Wulagasaurus Godefroit et al., 2008 |
Species: | †W. dongi |
Binomial name | |
Wulagasaurus dongi Godefroit et al., 2008 |
Wulagasaurus (meaning "Wulaga lizard", in reference to the discovery locality) is a genus of hadrosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur (flat-headed duckbilled dinosaur) from the Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang, China. Its remains were found in a bonebed in the latest Maastrichtian-age Yuliangze Formation, dated to 65.5 million years ago.[1] This bonebed is otherwise dominated by fossils of the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid (crested duckbill) Sahaliyania. Wulagasaurus was named by Pascal Godefroit and colleagues in 2008. Only partial remains are known at this time. It is one of several hadrosaurids from the Amur River region named since 2000. The type and only species to date is W. dongi, named in honor of Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming.[2]
Wulagasaurus is based on GMH W184, a partial dentary (toothbearing bone of the lower jaw). Godefroit and colleagues assigned additional remains from the bonebed to their new genus, including three braincases, a cheekbone, two maxillae (the toothbearing bone of the upper jaw), another dentary, two shoulder blades, two sternal elements, two upper arm bones, and an ischium. It can be distinguished from other hadrosaurids by its slender dentary and the unique form of its upper arm, which had distinctive articulations and placements for muscle attachments. Godefroit and colleagues performed a phylogenetic analysis that suggests Wulagasaurus was the most basal hadrosaurine known, and interpreted this as evidence that hadrosaurines and hadrosaurids in general originated in Asia.[2] As a hadrosaurid, Wulagasaurus would have been an herbivore.[3]