Gobihadros: New Member of Duck-billed Dinosaur Dynasty

A skeletal reconstruction of new dinosaur Gobihadros mongoliensis, based on multiple individuals including a rare, virtually complete specimen. (Credit: Tsogtbaatar et al, 2019) Toothy tyrannosaurs and enormous titanosaurs may be the most dramatic dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous, but plant-eating hadrosaurs had the numbers. These widely-distributed animals, often called duck-billed dinosaurs, are among the most commonly found fossils from the period that stretched 66 million-100 million years ago. Yet the hadrosaur origin story remains a bit of a mystery. Today, a magnificent new find from Mongolia fills in some of the gaps. Paleontologists unearthed multiple specimens of newly described Gobihadros mongoliensis from southeastern Mongolia. The crown jewels of the discovery are a virtually complete skeleton of an individual that was about 10 feet long — the fossil includes a slightly crushed skull — and a pristine, complete skull from a second individual. All of the fossil material is about 85 ...