''Blasisaurus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

lambeosaurine Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs. Classification Lambeosaurines have been traditionally split into the tribes or clades Parasaurolophini (''Parasaurolophus'', '' Charonosaurus'', others (?).) and Lambeosaurini ('' ...

hadrosaurid Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which incl ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

. It is known from a partial skull and skeleton found in late Maastrichtian-age rocks of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

is ''Blasisaurus canudoi'', described in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

by Penélope Cruzado-Caballero, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola and José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca, a group of researchers from Spain.

Naming and discovery

The generic name refers to the ''Blasi 1'' site where the fossil was found. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

honours

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

José Ignacio Canudo José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

. The holotype, MPZ99/667, is housed in

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, al ...

. It was found in a layer of the Arén Formation dating from the upper Maastrichtian, about 66 million years ago. It consists of a skull with fragmentary lower jaws.

Description

''Blasisaurus'' was a medium-sized

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous worl ...

. Its describers identified two distinct features: the

cheekbone In the human skull, the zygomatic bone (from grc, ζῠγόν, zugón, yoke), also called cheekbone or malar bone, is a paired irregular bone which articulates with the maxilla, the temporal bone, the sphenoid bone and the frontal bone. It ...

has a rear projection with a hook-shaped upper edge and the lower sleep window is narrow and D-shaped. From the same formation is '' Arenysaurus'', a related species. They are distinguished by the shape of the teeth and missing secondary ridges. ''Blasisaurus'' also differs from ''

Koutalisaurus ''Koutalisaurus'' (meaning "spoon lizard", in reference to the shape of the dentary) is a potentially dubious genus of extinct hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Arenysaurini. It is based on a mostly complete dentary from the Maastrichtian-age Upper C ...

'' by a downward bent front edge of the lower jaw.

Phylogeny

''Blasisaurus discoverers performed an exact cladistic analysis to determine its phylogenetic position, which placed it as the sister taxon to '' Arenysaurus''. Together they form a tribe, the

Arenysaurini Arenysaurini is a proposed tribe of primitive lambeosaurine hadrosaurs. It is composed of genera found in Europe and North Africa during the end of the Cretaceous period, and has been suggested to unite all lambeosaurs from the former continent i ...

, that is more derived than ''

Tsintaosaurus ''Tsintaosaurus'' (; meaning " Qingdao lizard", after the old transliteration "Tsingtao") is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from China. It was about long and weighed . The type species is ''Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus'', first described by Chi ...

'' and '' Jaxartosaurus''. ''Blasisaurus'' confirmed the hypothesis that, in the Late Cretaceous, different hadrosaurids from

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

migrated across land bridges. Where in

Lambeosaurinae Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs. Classification Lambeosaurines have been traditionally split into the tribes or clades Parasaurolophini (''Parasaurolophus'', '' Charonosaurus'', others (?).) and Lambeosaurini (''Cor ...

''Blasisaurus'' and ''Arenysaurus'' belong is disputed. Some put them in the tribe

Lambeosaurini Lambeosaurini, previously known as Corythosaurini, is one of four tribes of hadrosaurid ornithopods from the family Lambeosaurinae. It is defined as all lambeosaurines closer to ''Lambeosaurus lambei'' than to ''Parasaurolophus walkeri, Tsintaosau ...

at the base of the lambeosaurin-parasaurolophin split, some in Parasaurolophini. Below is the most recent cladogram including ''Blasisaurus'' and ''Arenysaurus'', published by Penélope Cruzado-Caballero ''et al.'' in 2013:

References

Lambeosaurines Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Maastrichtian life Cretaceous Spain Fossils of Spain Fossil taxa described in 2010 Ornithischian genera {{ornithopod-stub

Naming and discovery

Description

Phylogeny

See also

References