Gonkoken
"like a wild duck"
Type species Gonkoken nanoi
- Lived
- 72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ornithopods
- Found in
- Chile
- Named by
- Alarcón-Muñoz et al. 2023
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
70 million years ago
Habitat
It lived on a river floodplain in southern Chile. Woods from the Dorotea Formation include conifers, ginkgo relatives and palms; Stegouros is another dinosaur from these rocks.
Field notes
About Gonkoken
What it was like
Gonkoken was a plant eater related to the duck-billed dinosaurs, but not a true duckbill itself. It is known from bones of several individuals.
Its world
It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous, in the far south of what is now Chile. Its bones come from the Dorotea Formation, where it lived alongside the strange armored dinosaur Stegouros.
How it was found
Alarcón-Muñoz and colleagues named it in 2023. The type species is Gonkoken nanoi. Its name comes from a local language. It suggests that relatives of the duckbills reached South America more than once.
Field gallery
More views of Gonkoken
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 3
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Gonkoken.
The evidence
The science behind Gonkoken
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- The name-bearing specimen is a hip bone; a bonebed contains separate skull, limb and hip bones from several animals referred to Gonkoken.
- Its jaws have shorter tooth rows than those of the true duck-billed dinosaurs. The front of the upper jaw has a double row of small bony points.
- The front of the upper jaw curves downward, with an oval hollow around the nostril region.
Borrowed from relatives
- Its missing skull roof, cheek bones, hands and feet are restored after Gobihadros.
Still unknown
- Its skin texture and color.
- Whether it traveled in herds or cared for its young.
- The exact shape of its complete skull.
Discovery timeline
- 2019SkullsTsogtbaatar et al.
- 2021Same rocksSoto-Acuña et al.
- 2023Named itAlarcón-Muñoz et al.
- 2023Its worldMartínez et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Gonkoken
Skulls
Described the skull and skeleton of Gobihadros, a comparison for the missing skull roof, cheek bones, hands and feet of Gonkoken.
A new hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Late Cretaceous Baynshire Formation of the Gobi Desert (Mongolia). PLOS ONE 14: e0208480
Read the paper : A new hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Late Cretaceous Baynshire Formation of the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) (opens in a new tab)Same rocks
Described Stegouros, an armored dinosaur from the Dorotea Formation with a flat, bladed tail weapon.
Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile. Nature 600: 259-263
Read the paper : Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile (opens in a new tab)Named it
Named a southern duckbill relative whose ancestors reached South America separately from the true duck-billed dinosaurs.
Relict duck-billed dinosaurs survived into the last age of the dinosaurs in subantarctic Chile. Science Advances 9
Read the paper : Relict duck-billed dinosaurs survived into the last age of the dinosaurs in subantarctic Chile (opens in a new tab)Its world
Fossil woods from the Dorotea Formation record conifers, ginkgo relatives and palms in a warm, humid landscape.
A unique Late Cretaceous fossil wood assemblage from Chilean Patagonia provides clues to a high‐latitude continental environment. Papers in Palaeontology 9
Read the paper : A unique Late Cretaceous fossil wood assemblage from Chilean Patagonia provides clues to a high‐latitude continental environment (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Hadrosauroidea
Sources: Wikidata