Aquilarhinus
Name:
Aquilarhinus
(eagle snout).
Phonetic: Ah-kwil-a-wy-nus.
Named By: Albert Prieto-Márquez, Jonathan R.
Wagner & Thomas Lehman - 2019.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Hadrosauridae.
Species: A. palimentus
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unknown.
Known locations: USA, Texas - Aguja Formation.
Time period: Late (Lower Campanian?) Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and post
cranial skeleton.
Aquilarhinus
named for the perceived appearance of the snout which in life is
thought to resemble the hooked bend of an eagles beak, suggesting
Aquilarhinus may have had a specialised feeding
method. Study of the
lower jaw has led to a postulated reconstruction of front of the jaws
having a rounded shovel-like structure. Hadrosaurs
are known for
having hard keratinous beaks, hence their nicknames of duck-billed
dinosaurs, the shovel like appearance of the ‘beak’ of
Aquilarhinus may suggest a different feeding method
than most other
known hadrosaurs, perhaps even a focus upon a specific type of plant.
Further reading
- An unusual
‘shovel-billed’ dinosaur with trophic specializations from the early
Campanian of Trans-Pecos Texas, and the ancestral hadrosaurian
crest. - Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. - Albert
Prieto-Márquez, Jonathan R. Wagner & Thomas Lehman -
2019.
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