Name:
Yamatosaurus
(Yamato lizard).
Phonetic: Yam-ah-toe-sor-us.
Named By: Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Ryuji Takasaki,
Katsuhiro Kubota & Anthony R. Fiorillo - 2021.
Classification: Chordata, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hadrosauridae.
Species: Y. izanagii (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains, but very
roughly estimated to be about 7.5 meters long.
Known locations: Japan, Awaji Island -
Kita-Ama Formation.
Time period: Early Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial right dentary
[jaw], teeth, cervical (neck) vertebrae and cervical ribs,
partial coracoid (shoulder) and caudal (tail) vertebrae.
Yamatosaurus
is a genus of hadrosaurid
dinosaur that lived in Japan during the
late Cretaceous. Yamatosaurus is considered to be
a more primitive
form of hadrosaur, and the discovery of this dinosaur seems to
portray a picture of more basal hadrosaur forms existing in East Asia
all the way into the late Cretaceous, even when more advanced
hadrosaur forms were present throughout the lands. In the case of
Yamatosaurus this differentiates the genus from
other hadrosaur genera
discovered in Japan such as Kamuysaurus
even though the two genera
existed at roughly the same time as one another.
Further reading
- A new basal hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the
latest Cretaceous Kita-ama Formation in Japan implies the origin of
hadrosaurids. - Scientific Reports. 11 (1). - Yoshitsugu
Kobayashi, Ryuji Takasaki, Katsuhiro Kubota & Anthony R.
Fiorillo - 2021.