Hypsibema

Hypsibema is an extinct genus of very large basal hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of eastern North America. The type species is H. crassicauda, with a potential second species in H. missouriensis (now generally placed in its own genus, Parrosaurus). Most remains of H. crassicauda, including the type specimen, are known from the Tar Heel Formation of North Carolina, in addition to some remains known from the Marshalltown Formation of New Jersey.

== Discovery and naming == The type species, Hypsibema crassicauda, was described by Edward Drinker Cope, and was found in Sampson County, North Carolina in 1869. The generic name is derived from Greek υψι/hypsi, "high", and βεμα/bema, "step", as Cope believed that the species walked particularly erect on its toes. The specific name means "with a fat tail" in Latin. The syntypic series, USNM 7189, originally consisted of a caudal vertebra, a metatarsal, and two femoral fragments that were originally identified as humeral and tibial fragments, all found in 1869 by North Carolina state geologist professor Washington Carruthers Kerr in the Black Creek Group of North Carolina. A second vertebra referred to the species, USNM 6136, was later discovered by Edward Wilber Berry and referred to H. crassicauda in 1942. In their 1979 review of dinosaur remains from the Black Creek Group, Baird and Horner (1979) noted that the femoral fragments come from a tyrannosauroid similar to Dryptosaurus, and made the caudal vertebra included in the syntype series of H. crassicauda the lectotype, while stating that the metatarsal could not belong to the same individual as the caudal. Remains assignable to H. crassicauda have also been reported from the Ellisdale Fossil Site of New Jersey.