New saurolophine from Far Eastern Russia

[Pascaline Lauters <pascaline.lauters@hotmail.com>]

Kundurosaurus nagornyi

Godefroit P, Bolotsky YL, Lauters P (2012) A New Saurolophine Dinosaur 
from the Latest Cretaceous of Far Eastern Russia. PLoS ONE 7(5):
          e36849.
            doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036849


Background
Four
 main dinosaur sites have been investigated in latest Cretaceous 
deposits from the Amur/Heilongjiang Region: Jiayin and Wulaga in China 
(Yuliangze Formation), Blagoveschensk and Kundur in Russia (Udurchukan 
Formation). More than 90% of the bones discovered in these localities 
belong to hollow-crested lambeosaurine saurolophids, but flat-headed 
saurolophines are also represented: Kerberosaurus manakini at Blagoveschensk 
and Wulagasaurus dongi at Wulaga.


Methodology/Principal Findings
Herein we describe a new saurolophine dinosaur, Kundurosaurus nagornyi
 gen. et sp. nov., from the Udurchukan Formation (Maastrichtian) of 
Kundur, represented by disarticulated cranial and postcranial material. 
This new taxon is diagnosed by four autapomorphies.


Conclusions/Significance
A phylogenetic analysis of saurolophines indicates that Kundurosaurus nagornyi 
is nested within a rather robust clade including Edmontosaurus spp., 
Saurolophus spp., and Prosaurolophus maximus, possibly as a sister-taxon for 
Kerberosaurus manakini
 also from the Udurchukan Formation of Far Eastern Russia. The high 
diversity and mosaic distribution of Maastrichtian hadrosaurid faunas in
 the Amur-Heilongjiang region are the result of a complex 
palaeogeographical history and imply that many independent hadrosaurid 
lineages dispersed without any problem between western America and 
eastern Asia at the end of the Cretaceous.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036849