Aralosaurus

Aralosaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 83.6 Ma
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Life restoration of Aralosaurus.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Neornithischia
Clade: †Ornithopoda
Family: †Hadrosauridae
Subfamily: †Lambeosaurinae
Genus: †Aralosaurus
Rozhdestvensky, 1968
Type species
†Aralosaurus tuberiferus
Rozhdestvensky, 1968

Aralosaurus was a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Kazakhstan. It is known only by a posterior half of a skull (devoid of its mandible) and some post-cranial bones[1] found in the Bostobe Formation in rocks dated from the Upper Santonian-Lower Campanian boundary, at about 83.6 Ma (millions of years).[2] Only one species is known, Aralosaurus tuberiferus, described by Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky in 1968. The genus name means Aral Sea lizard, because it was found to the northeast of the Aral Sea.[1] The specific epithet tuberiferus means bearing a tuber because the posterior part of the nasal bone rises sharply in front of the orbits like an outgrowth.[1] Aralosaurus was originally reconstituted with a nasal arch similar to that of North American Kritosaurus (a comparison based on a specimen now placed in the genus Gryposaurus).[1] For many years, Aralosaurus was thus placed in the clade of the Hadrosaurinae. This classification was invalidated in 2004, following the re-examination of the skull of the animal which allowed to identify in Aralosaurus many typical characters of Lambeosaurinae. In particular, this study revealed that Aralosaurus had a hollow bony structure located far in front of the orbits, which communicated with the respiratory tract.[3] This structure being broken at its base, its shape and size remains undetermined.[3] More recently, Aralosaurus has been identified as the most basal Lambeosaurinae, and placed with its close relative Canardia from the upper Maastrichtian of France in the new clade of Aralosaurini.[2]

  1. ^ a b c d Rozhdestvensky, A.K. (1968). "Gadrozavry Kazakhstana [Hadrosaurs of Kazakhstan]. [Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic Amphibians and Reptiles]" (PDF). Akademia Nauk SSSR, Moscow: 97–141.
  2. ^ a b Prieto-Márquez, A.; Dalla Vecchia, F.M.; Gaete, R.; Galobart, À. (2013). "Diversity, Relationships, and Biogeography of the Lambeosaurine Dinosaurs from the European Archipelago, with Description of the New Aralosaurin Canardia garonnensis". PLOS ONE. 8 (7): e69835. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...869835P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069835. PMC 3724916. PMID 23922815.
  3. ^ a b Godefroit, P.; Alifanov, V.; Boltsky, Y. (2004). "A re-appraisal of "Aralosaurus tuberiferus" (Dinosauria, Hadrosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Kazakhstan". Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre. 74Sup (74): 139–154.