Protohadros
Name:
Protohadros
(first hadrosaur).
Phonetic: Pro-toe-had-ross.
Named By: J. J. Head - 1998.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Iguanodontia, Hadrosauroidea.
Species: P. byrdi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Holotype skull roughly about 70
centimetres long. Total body length roughly estimated at about
7 meters long. Special note*-Holotype individual is of a sub
adult, fully grown adults would have been larger than this.
Known locations: USA, Texas - Woodbine
Formation.
Time period: Cenomanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull and partial post
cranial remains.
Protohadros
is a genus of medium to large ornithopod dinosaur that lived in North
America during the late Cretaceous. Protohadros
means ‘first
hadrosaur)’, and reflects the idea at the time of its description
that the genus may represent the earliest true hadrosaur
in North
America. However, since Protohadros has been
named, several new
discoveries have now discredited the idea that Protohadros
was the
first. Today Protohadros is usually classed as a
hadrosauroid
(Hadrosauroidea), meaning that while it was similar and a close
relative of true hadrosaurid (Hadrosauridae) dinosaurs, it was
still too primitive in features to be one.
Protohadros
would have been a plant eating dinosaur that mostly walked around on
four legs, but could still rear up on just the two hind legs in order
to feed on high vegetation, or perhaps run from predators. The main
predatory threats to Protohadros would have been
predatory dinosaurs
such as tyrannosaurs
and dromaeosaurs.
Further reading
- A primitive hadrosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the
Cenomanian of Texas and its implications for hadrosaurian phylogenetic
and biogeographic histories. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
16(3, supplement): 40A. - J. J. Head - 1996.
A new species of basal hadrosaurid (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)
from the Cenomanian of Texas. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 18(4):718-738 - J. J. Head - 1998.
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