Dakotadon lakotaensis, Dollodon bampingi and Pteraichnus koreanensis

[jigruiz@unizar.es]

have been finally published in the last issue (april) of Cretaceous  
Research. Here are the abstracts of both papers:

Gregory S. Paul. 2008. A revised taxonomy of the iguanodont dinosaur  
genera and species. Cretaceous Research, 29(2), 192-216.

Abstract
Criteria for designating dinosaur genera are inconsistent; some very  
similar species are highly split at the generic level, other  
anatomically disparate species are united at the same rank. Since the  
mid-1800s the classic genus Iguanodon has become a taxonomic grab-bag  
containing species spanning most of the Early Cretaceous of the  
northern hemisphere. Recently the genus was radically redesignated  
when the type was shifted from nondiagnostic English Valanginian teeth  
to a complete skull and skeleton of the heavily built,  
semi-quadrupedal I. bernissartensis from much younger Belgian  
sediments, even though the latter is very different in form from the  
gracile skeletal remains described by Mantell. Currently, iguanodont  
remains from Europe are usually assigned to either robust I.  
bernissartensis or gracile I. atherfieldensis, regardless of location  
or stage. A stratigraphic analysis is combined with a character census  
that shows the European iguanodonts are markedly more morphologically  
divergent than other dinosaur genera, and some appear phylogenetically  
more derived than others. Two new genera and a new species have been  
or are named for the gracile iguanodonts of the Wealden Supergroup;  
strongly bipedal Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis Paul (2006. Turning  
the old into the new: a separate genus for the gracile iguanodont from  
the Wealden of England. In: Carpenter, K. (Ed.), Horns and Beaks:  
Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press,  
Bloomington, pp. 69?77) (holotype BMNH R5764) which possesses a  
camptosaur-like ilial shape, and the long snouted, long bodied, small  
hipped, semi-bipedal Dollodon bampingi gen. nov. sp. nov. (holotype  
IRSNB 1551) which has a shallow ilium. Insufficiently diagnostic I.  
hoggii is removed from the earlier Camptosaurus. Poorly described I.  
dawsoni, I. fittoni and I. hollingtoniensis are removed from the much  
later and more derived Iguanodon and considered Ornithopoda incertae  
sedis pending redescription. The synonymy of I. fittoni and I.  
hollingtoniensis has not been confirmed. A set of remains of similar  
age to I. fittoniand I. hollingtoniensis appear to combine a  
specialized, elongate dentary with massive arms: it either belongs to  
one of the contemporary taxa, or is a new, unnamed taxon. There has  
recently been a tendency to consider iguanodonts spatially remote from  
I. bernissartensis to be members of or very similar to the type  
species, but reanalysis finds that I. orientalis is not a junior  
synonym of I. bernissartensis and is a nomen dubium, and that basal I.  
lakotaensis is not a member of Iguanodon and accordingly is assigned  
the new genus Dakotadon gen. nov. (holotype SDSM 8656). Dakotadon is  
probably basal to Iguanodon and not an iguanodontoid. The higher  
taxonomy of iguanodontoids is confused due to phylogenetic problems,  
and inconsistent definitions of the Iguanodontidae (which as currently  
defined appears to be limited to Iguanodon) and Hadrosauroidea.  
Mantellisaurus and especially Dollodon, for instance, are probably  
more derived than Iguanodon: they may be hadrosauroids depending on  
which phylogenetic definition of the term is preferred.

Keywords: Iguanodon; Iguanodontia; Ornithopoda; Dinosaurs; Europe;  
Wealden Supergroup; Early Cretaceous

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Yuong-Nam Lee, Hang-Jae Lee, Junchang Lu, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi. 2008.  
New pterosaur tracks from the Hasandong Formation (Lower Cretaceous)  
of Hadong County, South Korea. Cretaceous Research, 29(2), 345-353.

Abstract
In 2004, fifty new pterosaur tracks were discovered in the Hasandong  
Formation (Lower Cretaceous), South Korea. They are preserved as  
natural casts on the surface of an isolated dark grey mudstone block  
(70 × 50 cm). Manus and pes imprints are very small, averaging 25.6 mm  
and 25.7 mm long, respectively. The manus imprints (N = 25) are  
tridactyl and digit I, II, III are strongly asymmetric. Fully  
plantigrade pes imprints (N = 25) were left by elongate metatarsals  
with short four digits (the ratio of digit to whole pes length is  
2.6). There is no trace of the 5th phalanx of the pes. As these  
features clearly distinguish the Hadong tracks from the type species  
of the ichnogenus Pteraichnus, we assign them to a new species,  
Pteraichnus koreanensis. They are stratigraphically the oldest  
pterosaur tracks in Korea and are distinguished by size and morphology  
from the two pterosaur ichnotaxa, Haenamichnus uhangriensis and  
Pteraichnus isp., previously reported from the Uhangri and Haman  
formations. Pteraichnus koreanensis is the smallest pterosaur track  
currently reported from Asia.

Keywords: Pterosaur tracks; Pteraichnus koreanensis; Early Cretaceous;  
Hasandong Formation; South Korea


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Jose Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca
Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (MUJA)
E-33328 Colunga, Spain
www.museojurasicoasturias.com
www.aragosaurus.com
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