Koutalisaurus

Taxobox
name = "Koutalisaurus"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Ornithopoda
infraordo = Iguanodontia
superfamilia = Hadrosauroidea
familia = Hadrosauridae
genus = "Koutalisaurus"
species = "K. kohlerorum"
binomial = "Koutalisaurus kohlerorum"
binomial_authority = Prieto-Marquez, Gaete, Rivas, Galobart, and Boada, 2006

"Koutalisaurus" (meaning "spoon lizard", in reference to the shape of the dentary) was a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur. It is based on a mostly complete dentary from the Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Tremp Formation near the town of Abella de la Conca, Lleida, Spain. This dentary, IPS SRA 27, had previously been referred to "Pararhabdodon",] but comes from a different locality, is based on non-comparable material, and has unusual characteristics.

The dentary is very elongate, and has a long toothless portion (the front of the jaw, including the end where the predentary would have been attached) that is bent steeply downward and inward, which would have given the jaw a spoon-like shape when complete. It is comparable in size, although on the small side and with unusual proportions (see above), compared to dentaries from other hadrosaurids.Prieto-Marquez, A., Gaete, R., Rivas, G., Galobart, Á., and Boada, M. 2006. Hadrosauroid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Spain: "Pararhabdodon isonensis" revisited and "Koutalisaurus kohlerorum", gen. et sp. nov. "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology" 26(4): 929-943.]

Prieto-Marquez "et al." (2006) found the animal to be a hadrosaurid, but of uncertain placement within the family.

References