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,
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| Right premaxilla | |
Scientific classification 
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| 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]
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See also
editReferences
edit- ^ 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
edit- Prieto-Márquez, Albert; Erickson, Gregory M.; Ebersole, Jun A. (14 April 2016). "Anatomy and osteohistology of the basal hadrosaurid dinosaur Eotrachodon from the uppermost Santonian (Cretaceous) of southern Appalachia". PeerJ. 4: e1872. doi:10.7717/peerj.1872. PMC 4841272. PMID 27114863.