Morrosaurus
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Morrosaurus Temporal range: Maastrichtian Late Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | Neornithischia |
| Infraorder: | Ornithopoda |
| (unranked): | Iguanodontia |
| (unranked): | Elasmaria |
| Genus: |
Morrosaurus Rozadilla et al., 2015 |
| Type species | |
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Morrosaurus antarcticus Rozadilla et al., 2015 |
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Morrosaurus is an extinct genus of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur member of the Euornithopoda, that lived in the late Cretaceous in the Antarctica. The only known species is the type Morrosaurus antarcticus.
In 2002 the Argentine paleontologist Fernando Novas reported the discovery of a partial skeleton of a euornithopod in Antarctica. In 2015 these remains were the basis for naming the type species Morrosaurus antarcticus, named and described by Sebastian Rozadilla, Federico Lisandro Agnolin, Fernando Emilio Novas, Alexis Rolando Aranciaga Mauro, Matthew J. Motta, Juan Manuel Lirio Marcelo and Pablo Isasi. The genus name refers to the site of El Morro on James Ross Island, where the remains of the species were found. The specific name refers to Antarctica. His name was mentioned in 2015 in the electronic version of the publication Cretaceous Research.
The holotype specimen MACN Pv 197, was found in a layer of the Snow Hill Island Formation (Cape Lambe, previously assigned to the Lopez de Bertodano Formation), dating to the Maastrichtian age. The remains consists in a right hind leg, including the top of the femur, the lower end of the femur, the upper part of the tibia, the underside of the tibia, the upper half of the foot, the bottom of the midfoot and the top of the first joint of the third toe.
The type specimen corresponds to a medium-sized animal. The descriptors were able to establish some distinctive features. Two of these are autapomorphies, i.e. derived features that are unique. In bottom view, the greater trochanter of the femur has an undulating profile with a thick edge output and a main thin edge. The fourth metatarsal bone has a triangular profile with a rearward projection that wraps around it and the third metatarsal.
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