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- Kryptohadros kallaiae lived during the Maastrichtian, about 70 million years ago.
- Holotype specimen preserves a partial skull, rib fragments, tail vertebrae and a partial hindlimb.
- The species is distinct from Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, previously confused for over a century.
- Telmatosauridae is proposed as a native clade including Telmatosaurus, Tethyshadros, and Kryptohadros.
- Phylogenetic analysis reveals multiple hadrosauroid dispersals between Albian and Maastrichtian and complex island biogeography.
A worldwide team of paleontologists from Romania, Hungary and Italy has identified a brand-new category and varieties of herbivorous, duck-billed dinosaur from an insufficient skeletal system unearthed in the Hațeg Basin, a bowl-shaped anxiety in the Carpathians of contemporary Romania.
Kryptohadros kallaiae strolled our earth throughout the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous duration, about 70 million years.
This dinosaur was a type of hadrosauroid , which is a team of herbivorous ornithischians that included the popular duck-billed dinosaurs and their close family members.
The types’ holotype sampling was found at the animal site of Fântânele- 3 near Vălioara town in the Hațeg Container, Romania, in continental deposits of the Densuș-Ciula Formation
This location is renowned among paleontologists for its uncommon island-dwelling dinosaurs.
“Complete skeletal systems that consist of cranial aspects, vertebrae and arm or leg bones are very uncommon in the Hațeg Basin, and this is particularly real for hadrosauroid continues to be,” said Dr. Attila Ősi, a paleontologist at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University.
“Many websites usually only have isolated bone components from this dinosaur team, which, although usually lacking specifying functions, was generally believed to belong to the formerly recognized Telmatosaurus ”
The skeleton of Kryptohadros kallaiae is partial, making up a skull, rib fragments, tail vertebrae and a partial hindlimb.
Yet even this fragmentary product sufficed to distinguish the brand-new species from every various other known dinosaurs, most significantly from Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus , the duck-billed dinosaur with which it had actually been perplexed for over a century.
The exploration shows that at least 2 very closely associated duck-billed dinosaurs occupied the region during the Late Cretaceous.
“The resemblance in between the new varieties and Telmatosaurus , is rather high, due to the fact that they are close family members,” claimed János Magyar, a doctoral pupil at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd College and the Hungarian Natural History Gallery.
“The distinctions are mainly visible only in the morphology of the skull components.”
According to the scientists, Kryptohadros kallaiae , Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus , and Tethyshadros insularis from Italy develop a freshly recognized transformative team called Telmatosauridae, a native lineage that evolved in the island atmospheres of southeastern Europe.
“Our phylogenetic analyses disclose particularly close connections in between all presently recognized Late Cretaceous south-eastern European hadrosauroids ( Telmatosaurus , Tethyshadros and Kryptohadros that belong to a freshly recognized little native to the island clade, Telmatosauridae,” they stated.
“Additionally, these analyses identify a number of different hadrosauroid transformative family trees existing within the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago, and suggest that at least six various other dispersal occasions occurred between the Albian (113 to 100 million years ago) and the Maastrichtian (72 to 66 million years ago) from Asia towards North America and/or Europe, besides the arrival of the forefathers of Telmatosauridae prior to the Campanian (84 to 72 million years ago).”
“The lack of certain later-arriving European hadrosauroid family trees from the faunas of the south-eastern European islands sustains earlier theories that propose a straight migration route during the latest Cretaceous between Asia and the south-western European islands, preventing south-eastern Europe.”
The exploration of Kryptohadros kallaiae is defined in a paper in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology
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János Magyar et al 2026 New early Maastrichtian ‘duck-billed’ dinosaur from Hațeg Basin (Densuș-Ciula Formation, Romania) papers a native clade of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids in the south-eastern Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 24 (1; doi: 10 1080/ 14772019 2025 2607800
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