Barsboldia

Taxobox
name = "Barsboldia"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Ornithischia
familia = Hadrosauridae
subfamilia = Lambeosaurinae
genus = "Barsboldia"
genus_authority=Maryańska & Osmólska, 1981
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"B. sicinskii" Maryańska & Osmólska, 1981 (type)

"Barsboldia" (meaning "of Barsbold", a well-known Mongolian paleontologist) was a genus of large hadrosaurid dinosaur from the early Maastrichtian Nemegt Formation of Ömnogöv', Mongolia. It is known from a partial vertebral column, partial pelvis, and some ribs. This dinosaur may be related to the roughly contemporaneous crested duckbill "Hypacrosaurus" of North America.

Description

Teresa Maryańska and Halszka Osmólska based this genus on ZPAL MgD-1/110, a partial skeleton consisting of nine back vertebrae, nine hip vertebrae, fifteen tail vertebrae, a left ilium, parts of the left and right pubis, several ribs, and a few fragments of the hind limbs, with the backbone largely articulated. The most distinctive features of this skeleton are found in the neural spines. These are very tall, particularly over the hips, and were described as second only to those of "Hypacrosaurus altispinus" ("Lambeosaurus laticaudus" another high-spined duckbill, was described the same year, and it is not known how they compare) and the tips of those found in the first few vertebrae of the tail are club-shapedcite journal |last=Maryańska |first=Teresa |coauthors=and Osmólska, Halszka|year=1981 |title=First lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia |journal=Acta Palaeontologia Polonica |volume=26 |pages=243–255 ] (possibly a sign of old age).cite book |last=Brett-Surman |first=Michael K. |title=A revision of the Hadrosauridae (Reptilia:Ornithischia) and their evolution during the Campanian and Maastrichtian. Ph.D. dissertation |year=1989 |publisher=Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=1-272]

History

Maryańska and Osmólska described their new genus as a lambeosaurine (or hollow-crested duckbill), the first from the Nemegt Formation, although it lacked a skull. However, the sacrum has a keel along the bottom, a possible lambeosaurine feature,cite book |last=Norman |first=David B. |authorlink=David B. Norman |coauthors=and Sues, Hans-Dieter |editor=Benton, Michael J.; Shishkin, Mikhail A.; Unwin, David M.; and Kurochkin, Evgenii N. |title=The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-55476-X |pages=462-479 |chapter=Ornithopods from Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia ] and the bones closely resemble those of "Hypacrosaurus".cite book|chapter=Barsboldia |last=Glut |first=Donald F. |authorlink=Donald F. Glut |title=Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia |year=1997 |publisher=McFarland & Co |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=202 |isbn=0-89950-917-7] With only one partial skeleton known, and no skull, the genus has been considered dubious or a possible lambeosaurine of uncertain placement.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 ]

Paleobiology

As a hadrosaurid, "Barsboldia" would have been a bipedal/quadrupedal herbivore, eating plants with a sophisticated skull that permitted a grinding motion analogous to chewing, and was furnished with hundreds of continually-replaced teeth. If it was a lambeosaurine, it would have had a hollow crest formed out of expanded skull bones containing the nasal passages, with a function relating to identification by sight and sound.

References

External links

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5a7a468.htm "Barsboldia" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair