A new genus and species of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroid dinosaur, named Qianjiangsaurus changshengi, has been identified from a specimen found in 2022 in southwest China.
Qianjiangsaurus changshengi lived in China during the Late Cretaceous epoch, around 70 million years ago.
The 8-m- (26-foot) long herbivore belongs to Hadrosauroidea, a superfamily of ornithischian dinosaurs that includes the so-called duck-billed dinosaurs and their close relatives.
“Hadrosauroidea is a diverse, highly specialized clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, remains of which have been found in the Late Early and Late Cretaceous deposits of Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Antarctica,” said Dr. Hai Xing, a paleontologist at the National Natural History Museum of China, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and colleagues.
“It is phylogenetically defined as the most inclusive taxon containing Parasaurolophus but not Iguanodon, and is famous for the duck-billed rostrum and complex tooth batteries of the skull.”
“Since the beginning of the 20th century, Hadrosauroidea has been regarded as an important component of the terrestrial vertebrate faunas of the entire Cretaceous.”
“The fossil record of the group includes bonebed assemblages yielding copious disarticulated elements, dozens of largely articulated skeletons, eggs and embryonic material, soft-tissue impressions and footprints.”
“Within Hadrosauroidea, non-hadrosaurid species together form a paraphyletic group that reveals the transitional morphology from early-branching iguanodontians to hadrosaurids.”
“The majority of the non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids are known from the Cretaceous of Asia, notably north and central China, where the Early Cretaceous Equijubus, Xuwulong and Probactrosaurus, as well as the Late Cretaceous Tanius, Gilmoreosaurus and Zhanghenglong, were recovered.”
“However, comparable material from the Cretaceous of southwest China is…
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