Naashoibitosaurus
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ornithopods, Hadrosauridae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Hunt and Lucas 1993
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
The Kirtland Formation records rivers and inland floodplains. Its dinosaur neighbors included Parasaurolophus, Pentaceratops and Bistahieversor.
Field notes
About Naashoibitosaurus
What it was like
Naashoibitosaurus was a duck-billed plant eater known from part of a skull. It was related to Kritosaurus and Gryposaurus, and some scientists think it may be the same animal as Kritosaurus.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico. Its bones come from the Kirtland Formation, where it shared the land with the tyrannosaur Bistahieversor, the horned Pentaceratops and the crested Parasaurolophus.
How it was found
Hunt and Lucas named it in 1993.
Field gallery
More views of Naashoibitosaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
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 Naashoibitosaurus.
The evidence
The science behind Naashoibitosaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- A partial skull preserves the arch of the nose and the bones around the eyes.
- The nasal bones divide at the back, allowing the forehead bones to extend between them.
Borrowed from relatives
- The broad beak and much of the body are restored by comparison with duck-billed relatives such as Kritosaurus and Gryposaurus.
Still unknown
- How much of its skull shape changed with age.
- Its skin pattern and color.
- Whether all the differences from Kritosaurus justify a separate genus.
Discovery timeline
- 1993Named itHunt & Lucas
- 2010Family treePRIETO-MÁRQUEZ
- 2013SkullPrieto-Márquez
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Naashoibitosaurus
Named it
Named Naashoibitosaurus from a partial skull previously assigned to Kritosaurus, emphasizing differences in the nasal bones.
Cretaceous vertebrates of New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 2: 77-91
No link available
Family tree
Compared duck-billed dinosaur skeletons to build a family tree, grouping Kritosaurus with Gryposaurus and Secernosaurus.
Global phylogeny of Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) using parsimony and Bayesian methods. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 159: 435-502
Read the paper : Global phylogeny of Hadrosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) using parsimony and Bayesian methods (opens in a new tab)Skull
Compared skull anatomy and supported Naashoibitosaurus as distinct from Kritosaurus, placing both among the relatives of Gryposaurus.
Skeletal morphology ofKritosaurus navajovius(Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of the North American south-west, with an evaluation of the phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of Kritosaurini. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 12: 133-175
Read the paper : Skeletal morphology ofKritosaurus navajovius(Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of the North American south-west, with an evaluation of the phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of Kritosaurini (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Hadrosauridae
Sources: Wikidata