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Penelopognathus, Early CretaceousBayangobi Formation, China · named 2005
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Penelopognathus

"wild duck jaw"

Lived
121 to 113 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
Diet
Herbivore
Group
Ornithopods
Found in
China
Named by
Godefroit et al. 2005

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

1 find

115 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

The Bayangobi Formation records inland lake basins in what is now China. Other dinosaurs from these rocks include Alxasaurus, Bannykus and Psittacosaurus.

Field notes

About Penelopognathus

What it was like

Penelopognathus was described as a plant eater and an early relative of the duck-billed dinosaurs. It is known from a lower jaw. A later study treated the name as doubtful because its distinguishing jaw features also occur in other relatives of the duck-billed dinosaurs.

Its world

It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now northern China. Its jaw comes from the Bayangobi Formation, where the early therizinosaur Alxasaurus and the alvarezsaur Bannykus also lived.

How it was found

Godefroit and colleagues named it in 2005.

Field gallery

More views of Penelopognathus

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Penelopognathus in its habitat, photo 1

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 Penelopognathus.

The evidence

The science behind Penelopognathus

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • It is known from the tooth-bearing bone of the right lower jaw, with teeth still in place and some loose tooth crowns.
  • The jaw is long, low and nearly straight, with many small openings scattered along its outer surface. Its front end shows where the toothless bone at the tip of the lower jaw attached.
  • Behind the teeth, a raised projection for the jaw muscles leans slightly backward.

Borrowed from relatives

  • The naming study compared its jaw and teeth with Altirhinus and Probactrosaurus. The rest of its head and body can only be restored in a general way from early relatives of the duck-billed dinosaurs.

Still unknown

  • The shape of its complete skull and any head ornament.
  • Its body size, limb proportions, skin covering and color.
  • Whether it is a distinct genus. Its namers found its jaw and teeth distinctive, but one later study judged those features to be shared with many relatives and treated the name as doubtful.

Discovery timeline

  1. 2005Named itGodefroit, Li & Shang
  2. 2010Family treeMcDonald et al.
  3. 2012Family treeMcDonald
  4. 2022Family treePoole

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Penelopognathus

Close relatives

Other members of Hadrosauroidea

Sources: Wikidata