''Arkharavia'' (meaning "

Arkhara Arkhara () is an Urban-type settlement and the administrative center of the Arkharinsky District in Amur Oblast, Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries an ...

road") is a dubious

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

somphospondylan Somphospondyli is an extinct clade of titanosauriform sauropods that lived from the Late Jurassic until the end of the Late Cretaceous, comprising all titanosauriforms more closely related to Titanosauria proper than Brachiosauridae. The remain ...

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...

, although at least some of its remains probably belong to a

hadrosaurid Hadrosaurids (), also hadrosaurs 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 fami ...

. It was discovered in the

Udurchukan Formation The Udurchukan Formation is a geological formation located in Amur Region, Far East Russia. Based on palynomorphs such as '' Wodehouseia spinata'', the Udurchukan is considered of Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous, during the Cretaceous Peri ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

. It was described in 2010 by Alifanov and Bolotsky and the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

is ''A. heterocoelica''.

Description

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

material consists of a single

anterior Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

caudal vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

. Also, a tooth and a few

proximal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

tail

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

e (from near the base of the tail) were originally described as belonging to this species, but these probably belong to an indeterminate hadrosaur. The vertebrae are unusual in being weakly heterocoelous, which means that the centrum or body of a vertebra has saddle-shaped surfaces where it meets the vertebrae in front or behind it.

Classification

''Arkharavia'' was originally classified as a

titanosaur Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thr ...

iform sauropod, thought to be related to ''

Chubutisaurus ''Chubutisaurus'' (meaning "Chubut lizard") is a genus of somphospondylan sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Cerro Barcino Formation (Albian) of Argentina. The type species, ''Chubutisaurus insignis'', was described by del Corro in 197 ...

'', a sauropod from the Cretaceous of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. However, further study showed that the referred vertebra in fact belonged to a hadrosaurid. The holotype vertebra is currently considered an indeterminate

Contemporaries

''Arkharavia'' lived in the Amur Region, which was a 'hot spot' for dinosaurs in Russia. Other dinosaurs from the area include the

lambeosaurines Lambeosauridae /ˌlæmbiəˈsɔːraɪniː/ (meaning 'lambe's lizards') is an extinct group of crested hadrosauroid dinosaurs. Description Size Uncertainty surrounds the size of lambeosaurs from the European continent. Hadrosaurs found there, a ...

(hollow-crested duckbills) ''

Amurosaurus ''Amurosaurus'' (; "Amur lizard") is a genus of lambeosaurinae, lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur found in the latest Cretaceous period (66 million years ago)Godefroit, P., Lauters, P., Van Itterbeeck, J., Bolotsky, Y. and Bolotsky, I.Y. (2011) ...

'', ''

Olorotitan ''Olorotitan'' was a monotypic genus of lambeosaurine duck-billed dinosaur, containing a single species, ''Olorotitan arharensis.'' It was among the last surviving non-avian dinosaurs to go extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction ev ...

'', and ''

Charonosaurus ''Charonosaurus'' ( ; meaning "Charon (mythology), Charon's lizard") is a genus of dinosaur whose fossils were discovered by Godefroit, Zan & Jin in 2000, on the south bank of the Amur River, dividing China from Russia. It is monotypic, consisti ...

'', and the

saurolophine Saurolophinae is a subfamily (biology), subfamily of hadrosaurid dinosaurs. It has since the mid-20th century generally been called the Hadrosaurinae, a group of largely non-crested hadrosaurs related to the crested sub-family Lambeosaurinae. How ...

(duckbills without hollow crests) ''

Kerberosaurus ''Kerberosaurus'' (meaning " Kerberos lizard") was a genus of saurolophine duckbill dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Tsagayan Formation of Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region, Russia (dated to 66 million years ago).Godefroit, ...

'' and '' Wulagasaurus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1425845 Macronaria Dinosaur genera Maastrichtian dinosaurs Dinosaurs of Russia Fossil taxa described in 2010

Description

Classification

Contemporaries

See also

References