Wulagasaurus

Taxobox
name = "Wulagasaurus"


image width =
fossil_range=Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
familia = Hadrosauridae
subfamilia=Hadrosaurinae
genus = "Wulagasaurus"
genus_authority= Godefroit "et al.", 2008
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"W. dongi" Godefroit "et al.", 2008 (type)

"Wulagasaurus" (meaning "Wulaga lizard", in reference to the discovery locality) is a genus of hadrosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur (flat-headed duckbilled dinosaur) from the Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang, China. Its remains were found in a bonebed in the Maastrichtian-age Yuliangze Formation. This bonebed is otherwise dominated by fossils of the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid (crested duckbill) "Sahaliyania". "Wulagasaurus" was named by Pascal Godefroit and colleagues in 2008. Only partial remains are known at this time. It is one of several hadrosaurids from the Amur River region named since 2000. The type and only species to date is "W. dongi", named in honor of Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming.cite journal |last=Godefroit |first=Pascal |coauthors=Hai Shulin; Yu Tingxiang; and Lauters, Pascaline |year=2008 |title=New hadrosaurid dinosaurs from the uppermost Cretaceous of north−eastern China |journal=Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=47–74 |url=http://www.app.pan.pl/acta53/app53-047.pdf |format=pdf]

"Wulagasaurus" is based on GMH W184, a partial dentary (toothbearing bone of the lower jaw). Godefroit and colleagues assigned additional remains from the bonebed to their new genus, including three braincases, a cheekbone, two maxillae (the toothbearing bone of the upper jaw), another dentary, two shoulder blades, two sternal elements, two upper arm bones, and an ischium. It can be distinguished from other hadrosaurids by its slender dentary and the unique form of its upper arm, which had distinctive articulations and placements for muscle attachments. Godefroit and colleagues performed a phylogenetic analysis that suggests "Wulagasaurus" was the most basal hadrosaurine known, and interpreted this as evidence that hadrosaurines and hadrosaurids in general originated in Asia. As a hadrosaurid, "Wulagasaurus" would have been an herbivore.cite book |last=Horner |first=John R. |authorlink=Jack Horner (paleontologist) |coauthors=Weishampel, David B.; and Forster, Catherine A |editor=Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.)|title=The Dinosauria |edition=2nd |year= 2004|publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-24209-2 |pages=438–463 |chapter=Hadrosauridae ]

References