Outline: a typical ornithopod
Charonosaurus
kuh-ROH-noh-SORE-us
"Charon's lizard"
- Lived
- 72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ornithopods, Hadrosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Godefroit et al. 2000
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
70 million years ago
Field notes
About Charonosaurus
What it was like
Charonosaurus was a large duck-billed dinosaur. Its skull is incomplete, but it looks much like Parasaurolophus and probably had a long, hollow crest sweeping back from its head.
Its world
It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, in what is now China. Its fossils come from the Yuliangzi Formation, where other duck-bills such as Wulagasaurus lived.
How it was found
Godefroit and colleagues named Charonosaurus in 2000. Its name comes from the ferryman of the dead in Greek myth, because it was found on the bank of the river that forms the border between China and Russia.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Hadrosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: P. Godefroit, S. Zan, and L. Jin. 2000. Charonosaurus jiayinensis n. g., n. sp., a lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Maastrichtian of northeastern China. Compte Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, Paris, Sciences de la Terre et des planètes 330:875-882