Rhadinosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Thyreophora |
Suborder: | †Ankylosauria |
Clade: | †Euankylosauria |
Family: | †Nodosauridae |
Genus: | †Rhadinosaurus Seeley, 1881 |
Species: | †R. alcimus
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Binomial name | |
†Rhadinosaurus alcimus Seeley, 1881
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Rhadinosaurus (meaning "slender lizard") is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaur first described in 1881 by Harry Govier Seeley, based on remains uncovered in Austria sometime between 1859 and 1870 by Edward Suess and Pawlowitsch.[1] It was a herbivore that lived around 84.9 to 70.6 million years ago (during the Late Cretaceous period).[2] The type species is R. alcimus.
The Rhadinosaurus hypodigm (holotype) consists of one tibia fragment, one limb fragment, two fibulae, and two dorsal vertebrae. The fibulae (PIUW 2349/34), which are clearly ankylosaurian, were originally identified as femora in the original description, but were eventually re-identified in a 2001 review of ankylosaur specimens from the Grünbach Formation.[3] Sachs and Hornung (2006) re-identified one of the putative humeral bones (PIUW 2348/35) as a tibial fragment of an rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaur, referring it to Zalmoxes sp.[4]
Rhadinosaurus was initially classified as a dinosaur of uncertain position, and later considered an ornithosuchid as well as possible synonym of Doratodon, until Franz Nopcsa introduced the now popular theory that classifies it as a probable synonym of Struthiosaurus.[3][5][6][7][8]