Willinakaqe
Name:
Willinakaqe
(Southern duck mimic).
Phonetic: Wil-lin-a-kak-e.
Named By: Rubin D. Juarez Valieri, Jose A.
Haro, Lucas E. Fiorelli & Jorge O. Calvo - 2010.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hadrosauridae, Saurolophinae,
Kritosaurini.
Species: W. salitralensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain, most previous size estimates for
Willinakaqe are based upon fossils no longer attributed to the genus.
Known locations: Argentina, Rio Negro Province
- Allen Formation.
Time period: Campanian/Maastrichtian of the
Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains.
When
Willinakaqe was first described it was from a
collection of fossils
from various different individual dinosaurs. With the holotype bones
of Willinakaqe weathered, the other fossil bones
were used as stand
in to get a more complete picture of this dinosaur. This involved
establishing what is known as a paratype, a more complete and better
preserved example of the original holotype specimen.
This
was all fine until a later analysis of the Willinakaqe
fossils in
2016, came to the conclusion that the fossils probably do not
represent the same genus of hadrosaurid
dinosaur. This includes
the paratype fossils which have now been renamed s belonging to their
own distinct genus, Bonapartesaurus.
This now leaves the holotype
fossils of Willinakaqe, which are poorly
preserved, so much so that
they are also considered to not be clearly diagnostic enough to
identify further fossils.
Willinakaqe
as a valid genus of dinosaur now faces an uncertain future.
Further reading
A new hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Allen
Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Patagonia, Argentina, Rubin D.
Juarez Valieri, Jose A. Haro, Lucas E. Fiorelli &
Jorge
O. Calvo - 2010.
- Revisiting the hadrosaurid diversity of the Allen Fm.:
Re-evaluation of the taxonomic validity of Willinakaqe
salitralensis
(Ornithopoda, Hadrosauridae) from Salitral Moreno, Río Negro
Province, Argentina. - Ameghiniana. 53 (2): 231–237.
- Penélope Cruzado Caballero & Rodolfo Anibal Coria –
2016.
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