Tammy the Charonosaurus the Mesozoic Kingdom by Kabthong on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Charonosaurus is a very large lambeosaurine hadrosaur, estimated around 10 metres (33 ft) in length and 5 metric tons (5.5 short tons) in body mass.[1][2] It is known from a partial skull (Holotype: CUST J-V1251-57 (Changchun University of Sciences and Technology, Changchun, Jilin Province, China) found in the Late Maastrichtian Yuliangze Formation, west of Jiayin village, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China. Adult and juvenile hadrosaur remains discovered in the same area and formation likely represent the same taxon and supply information on most of the postcranial skeleton; the femur length was up to 1.35 m (4.5 ft). The partial skull resembles that of Parasaurolophus and probably had a similar long, backward-projecting hollow crest, indicated by the highly modified dorsal surface of the frontal bones. Charonosaurus is one of the largest hadrosaurs currently known from Asia and indicates that lambeosaurines survived until the very end of the Cretaceous (lambeosaurines are not known from the Late Maastrichtian in North America).[3]

The remains of Charonosaurus come from large bonebeds (bone deposits) discovered since 1975, during excavations by several Chinese institutions around the city of Jiayin on the Amur River. The holotype material (specimen number CUST J-V1251-57), a fragmentary skull, was described as Charonosaurus jiayinensis by Pascal Godefroit, Shuqin Zan and Liyong Jin in 2000. The genus name is derived from Charon, the ferryman from Greek mythology who carried the dead across the dead river Acheron (or Styx), and the ancient Greek word sauros (lizard). The specific epiteth jiayinensis refers to the type locality (site) Jiayin.[3]

Stratigraphically the finds are from the Yuliangze Formation. The first finds from this formation were recovered in the summers of 1916 and 1917 by excavations of the Russian Geological Committee. Among them are bones of hadrosaurids described by Anatoly Riabinin as Manchurosaurus amurensis. Furthermore, Riabinin assigned another find, a very fragmentary ischium, to hadrosaurids and named it Saurolophus krystofovici. Both names are nowadays considered as nomina dubia.[3]