Cranial anatomy and variation in Prosaurolophus maximus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae)

Title
Cranial anatomy and variation in Prosaurolophus maximus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae)
Publication Date
2013-04
Author(s)
McGarrity, Christopher T
Campione, Nicolas E
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4205-9794
Email: ncampion@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ncampion
Evans, David C
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1111/zoj.12009
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/27561
Abstract
Prosaurolophus maximus Brown is a saurolophine hadrosaurid known from numerous complete, articulated skulls from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian, Alberta, Canada) that range in size by approximately half a metre in total skull length. Therefore, it is an important taxon for understanding patterns of growth and variation in saurolophines. This study describes the cranial anatomy of P. maximus from the type locality of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Dinosaur Park Formation: Campanian) on the basis of ten articulated skulls, quantitatively examines its range of osteological variation, and provides the first hypothesized ontogenetic series for this taxon. A second species, Prosaurolophus blackfeetensis Horner, was named on the basis of geologically younger material from Montana (Two Medicine Formation: Campanian) that is diagnosed by putative morphological differences in the nasal crest. However, considerable nasal crest variation in the sample from the Dinosaur Park Formation does not permit quantitative differentiation of P. blackfeetensis from P. maximus. Furthermore, a species-level phylogenetic analysis of saurolophines that includes both P. maximus and P. blackfeetensis as originally defined recovers them as sister taxa that do not differ morphologically in the character matrix. Based on both the morphometric and phylogenetic data, this study supports the hypothesis that P. blackfeetensis is a junior synonym of P. maximus, thereby substantially increasing its temporal range to 1.6 million years, and a concomitant period of morphological stasis in this taxon.
Link
Citation
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 167(4), p. 531-568
ISSN
1096-3642
0024-4082
Start page
531
End page
568

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink