Eotrachodon orientalis (meaning "dawn Trachodon from the east") is a species of hadrosaurid that was described in 2016. The holotype was found in the Mooreville Chalk Formation (Upper Santonian) in Alabama in 2007 and includes a well-preserved skull and partial skeleton, making it a rare find among dinosaurs of Appalachia. Another primitive hadrosaur, Lophorhothon, is also known from the same formation, although Eotrachodon lived a few million years prior. A phylogenetic study has found Eotrachodon to be the sister taxon to the hadrosaurid subfamilies Lambeosaurinae and Saurolophinae. This, along with the other Appalachian hadrosaur Hadrosaurus and possibly Lophorhothon, Claosaurus and both species of Hypsibema, suggests that Appalachia was the ancestral area of Hadrosauridae.[1]

Eotrachodon
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 86–83.6 Ma
Right premaxilla
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Family: Hadrosauridae
Genus: Eotrachodon
Prieto-Márquez, Erickson and Ebersole, 2016[1]
Type species
Eotrachodon orientalis
Prieto-Marquez, Erickson and Ebersole, 2016[1]
Life restoration of Eotrachodon orientalis

Hadrosaurus foulkii

Eotrachodon orientalis

Saurolophidae (=Euhadrosauria)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Prieto-Marquez, Albert; Erickson, Gregory M.; Ebersole, Jun A. (2016). "A primitive hadrosaurid from southeastern North America and the origin and early evolution of 'duck-billed' dinosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 36 (2): e1054495. Bibcode:2016JVPal..36E4495P. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.1054495. S2CID 86032549.

Further reading

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