''Koutalisaurus'' (meaning "

spoon A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a table setting, place setting, it is used ...

lizard", in reference to the shape of the

dentary In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

) is a potentially

dubious Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them. Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty ...

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 ...

of extinct

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

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 ...

. It is based on a mostly complete dentary from the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interv ...

-age

Upper 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'', ...

Tremp Formation The Tremp Formation ( es, Formación de Tremp, ca, Formació de Tremp), alternatively described as Tremp Group ( es, Grupo Tremp), is a geological formation in the comarca Pallars Jussà, Lleida, Spain. The formation is restricted to the Tr ...

near the town of Abella de la Conca, Lleida,

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") , ...

Discovery and naming

The holotype dentary, IPS SRA 27, had previously been referred to ''

Pararhabdodon ''Pararhabdodon'' (meaning "near fluted tooth" in reference to '' Rhabdodon'') is a genus of tsintaosaurin hadrosaurid dinosaur, from the Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Tremp Group of Spain. The first remains were discovered from the Sant R ...

'' in 1999,Casanovas, M.L, Pereda-Suberbiola, X., Santafé, J.V., and Weishampel, D.B. (1999). First lambeosaurine hadrosaurid from Europe: palaeobiogeographical implications. ''Geological Magazine'' 136(2):205-211. but comes from a different locality, is based on non-comparable material, and has unusual characteristics, leading Prieto-Marquez ''et al.'' (2006) to place the dentary in the new species ''Koutalisaurus kohleorum''.Prieto-Marquez, A., Gaete, R., Rivas, G., Galobart, Á., and Boada, M. (2006). Hadrosauroid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Spain: ''Pararhabdodon isonensis'' revisited and ''Koutalisaurus kohlerorum'', gen. et sp. nov. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 26(4): 929-943. ''Koutalisaurus'' was later found to be an invalid ''nomen dubium'', although later studies do not reflect this hypothesis and still classify ''Koutalisaurus'' as a valid

. In 2007, a poster presentation and abstract at a conference suggested many of the hadrosaur specimens found at the Basturs Poble bonebed may have belonged to ''Koutalisaurus'', but they cautioned an adult dentary from the bonebed would need to be discovered to test the hypothesis. This idea was later rejected after the Basturs Poble remains were reclassified as belonging to lambeosaurines such as ''

Adynomosaurus ''Adynomosaurus'' is a genus of lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now Catalonia, Spain. First discovered in 2012, it was named in 2019 with the type and only species ''Adynomosaurus arcanus'', as an addition to the very i ...

'' and ''

cf. The abbreviation ''cf.'' (short for the la, confer/conferatur, both meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that ''cf.'' be used onl ...

'' ''Pararhabdodon''.

Description

The dentary is very elongate, and has a long toothless portion (the front of the jaw, including the end where the

predentary Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek s ...

would have been attached) that is bent steeply downward and inward, which would have given the jaw a spoon-like shape when complete. It is comparable in size, although on the small side and with unusual proportions (see above), compared to dentaries from other hadrosaurids.

Classification

Prieto-Marquez ''et al.'' (2006) found the animal to be a hadrosaurid, but of uncertain placement within the family. More recent work by Prieto-Marquez and Wagner suggests that it is the same as ''Pararhabdodon'' as originally thought. A 2020 study by Nick Longrich and colleagues describing the genus ''

Ajnabia ''Ajnabia'' (meaning "stranger" or "foreigner") is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Morocco. It is the first definitive hadrosaur from Africa, and is thought to be related to European dinosaurs like ' ...

'' found ''Koutalisaurus'' to be an arenysaurin. The cladogram from their study's phylogenetic analysis is shown below:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2953769 Lambeosaurines Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Cretaceous Spain Fossils of Spain Tremp Formation Fossil taxa described in 2006 Ornithischian genera

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

See also

References