Name:
Augustynolophus
(Augustyn’s crest).
Phonetic: Aw-gus-tin-o-lo-fus.
Named By: Albert Prieto-M�rquez, Jonathan R.
Wagner, Phil R. Bell & Luis M. Chiappe - 2014.
Synonyms: Saurolophus morrisi.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Hadrosauridae, Saurolophinae.
Species: A. morrisi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Reconstructed skull length roughly 106
centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, California - Moreno
Formation.
Time period: Late Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Fragmentary skull and
postcranial fossils.
First
described as a species of Saurolophus
in 2013, the species was
re-described as a distinct genus, Augustynolophus
only a year later.
Not much can be said about Augustynolophus,
though we do know that
it was among the last hadrosaurid
genera to live, and may have been
around to see the asteroid strike that marks the end of the
Cretaceous. Also the skull of the holotype has a reconstructed length
of just over one meter, meaning that Augustynolophus
would have grown
fairly large.
Augustynolophus
was named in honour of Gretchen Augustyn, and is in recognition of
hers and her family support of the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural
History Museum in Los Angeles County. Augustynolophus
is the official state dinosaur of California.
Further reading
- A new species of saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late
Cretaceous of the Pacific coast of North America. - Acta
Palaeontologica Polonica 58 (2): 255–268. - A.
Prieto-M�rquez & J. R. Wagner - 2013.
- The late-surviving ‘duck-billed’ dinosaur Augustynolophus
from
the upper Maastrichtian of western North America and crest evolution in
Saurolophini. - Geological Magazine - Albert Prieto-M�rquez,
Jonathan R. Wagner, Phil R. Bell & Luis M. Chiappe
- 2014.