Mandschurosaurus

Mandschurosaurus (meaning "lizard from Manchuria") is a genus of hadrosaurs based on material from the Upper Cretaceous of China.

Mandschurosaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 66 Ma
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Reconstructed M. amurensis skeleton in outdated tripod-pose, VSEGEI Museum, St. Petersburg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Suborder: †Ornithopoda
Family: †Hadrosauridae
Genus: †Mandschurosaurus
Riabinin, 1930
Type species
†Mandschurosaurus amurensis
Riabinin, 1925
Species
  • †M. amurensis (Riabinin, 1925 [originally Trachodon])
  • †?M. laosensis Hoffett, 1944

History of discovery

M. amurensis is based on a poorly preserved and incomplete skeleton collected by Russian scientists in 1914 from the banks of the Amur River. It was the first dinosaur genus named from China, and a mounted skeleton is on display at the Central Geological and Prospecting Museum in St. Petersburg. However, much of the skeleton is plaster. Regardless, the remains represent a large hadrosaurid. There has been some debate regarding the validity of this genus. Brett-Surman (1979) first considered it a nomen dubium, though some later workers have continued to see it as a valid taxon (Chapman et Brett Surman, 1990, for example). Most recently, Horner et al. (2004) listed the type species as a nomen dubium. The holotype material was initially referred to the genus "Trachodon" (also a nomen dubium), but later reassigned to a new genus by Riabinin (1930).

Over the years, three species have been placed within this genus: Mandschurosaurus amurensis, M. mongoliensis, and M. laosensis. Brett-Surman (1979) considered M. mongoliensis a distinct genus, which he named Gilmoreosaurus. Horner et al. (2004) considered M. laosensis a nomen dubium. This leaves only Riabinin's original species, M. amurensis, as a possibly valid taxon.

See also

References
  • Brett-Surman M. K. (1979). "Phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of hadrosaurian dinosaurs". Nature. 277 (5697): 560–562. Bibcode:1979Natur.277..560B. doi:10.1038/277560a0.
  • Chapman R. et Brett-Surman M. K. 1990. Morphometric observations on hadrosaurid ornithopods. in Carpenter K. et Currie, P. J. (eds.), Dinosaur Systematics: Perspectives and Approaches, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 163-177.
  • Horner J., Weishampel D. B., et Forster C. A. 2004. Chapter Twenty: Hadrosauridae. in The Dinosauria (2nd edition), Weishampel D. B., Dodson P., and Osmólska H., editors. University of California Press.
  • Riabinin A. N. (1930). "Mandschurosaurus amurensis nov. gen, nov. sp. a hadrosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of the Amur River". Soc. Paleontol. Russ. Mem. 2: 1–36. [Russian]
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