Penelopognathus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Neornithischia |
Clade: | †Ornithopoda |
Superfamily: | †Hadrosauroidea |
Genus: | †Penelopognathus |
Species: | †P. weishampeli
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Binomial name | |
†Penelopognathus weishampeli Godefroit, Li, and Shang, 2005
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Penelopognathus (meaning "wild duck jaw") is a genus of dinosaur which lived during the Early Cretaceous. It was an iguanodont ancestral to hadrosaurids, which also contributes to the hypothesis that hadrosauroids originated in Asia.[1] Fossils have been found in the Bayin-Gobi Formation in what is now China. The type species, Penelopognathus weishampeli, named after David Weishampel, was described by Godefroit, Li, and Shang in 2005, based on fragmentary jaw fossils.[1]
Its jaw is similar to that of Altirhinus and Probactrosaurus, suggesting that Penelopognathus was related to the two genera.[1] Prieto-Márquez and Carrera Farias (2021) found that Telmatosaurus was the sister taxon to Penelopognathus, which was also found to be closely related to Lophorhothon, as opposed to Tethyshadros.[2] Penelopognathus grew up to around 5 metres (16 ft) long and around 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall when fully grown.