A new genus and species of dwarf lambeosaurine hadrosaurid has come to light in Moroccan rocks dating to the Late Cretaceous epoch, some 68 million years ago.
“Duckbill dinosaurs, or hadrosaurids, were highly successful herbivores that staged a major radiation in the Late Cretaceous epoch,” said University of Bath paleontologist Nicholas Longrich and his colleagues.
“Hadrosaurids evolved in North America in the Turonian age (94-90 million years ago), before dispersing into Asia and Europe.”
“The presence of a hadrosaurid in Africa is perplexing, because Africa had been isolated from Laurasia by deep seaways since the mid-Jurassic, while hadrosaurids evolved in the Late Cretaceous.”
“The resolution to the paradox appears to be that duckbills swam or rafted to Africa.”
The newly-described hadrosaurid species lived in Africa during the Late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, around 68 million years ago.
Named Minqaria bata, the dinosaur was relatively small, approximately 3.5 m (11.5 feet) long.
The species comes from the phosphate mines at Sidi Chennane, Morocco, the same locality that produced the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid Ajnabia odysseus, and is based on a partial skull.
It belongs to Arenysaurini, a clade of lambeosaurine hadrosaurids endemic to Europe and North Africa.
“Minqaria bata is distinguished from Ajnabia odysseus by the shape of the maxilla, which has a more ventrally placed jugal facet, a curved ectopterygoid ridge, a more sinusoidal toothrow, and neurovascular foramina arranged in a line,” the paleontologists said.
“However, the new species closely resembles Ajnabia odysseus and other arenysaurins in its small size, and many anatomical features.”
The researchers also unearthed the fossilized remains of two other hadrosaurids at Sidi Daoui and Mrah Lahrach sites.
“A humerus and a femur belong to larger hadrosaurids, 6 m (20 feet) long, implying at least three species coexisted,” they said.
The team’s…
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