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Naashoibitosaurus ostromi
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Naashoibitosaurus ostromi

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Naashoibitosaurus (from Navajo —"creek lizard") is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived about 73 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, and was found in the Kirtland Formation of the San Juan Basin in New Mexico, United States. Only a partial skeleton has been found to date. It was first described as a specimen of Kritosaurus by Jack Horner, and has been intertwined with the taxon since its description.

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taxon name
Naashoibitosaurus ostromi
taxon rank
species
Commons category
Naashoibitosaurus
short name
N. ostromi
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Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Description
  • Classification
  • Paleobiology
  • See also
  • References
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Naashoibitosaurus (from Navajo —"creek lizard") is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived about 73 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, and was found in the Kirtland Formation of the San Juan Basin in New Mexico, United States. Only a partial skeleton has been found to date. It was first described as a specimen of Kritosaurus by Jack Horner, and has been intertwined with the taxon since its description.

==History== Befitting a genus with a confusing taxonomic history, the name of this genus is based on an error. David Gillette and David Thomas collected the type and only known specimen from what was thought to be the Naashoibito Member of the Kirtland Formation, the youngest member of the Kirtland; this was commemorated in the name. Instead, it came from the older, late Campanian-age De-na-zin Member. Horner described the skull in 1992 as that of an immature Kritosaurus, using it as evidence that Gryposaurus was different from Kritosaurus. At the same time, Hunt and Lucas were describing the postcrania as belonging to Edmontosaurus saskatchewanensis. When the disconnect became apparent, Hunt and Lucas gave the specimen its own generic name, because the skull did not agree with an edmontosaur, and they considered Kritosaurus indeterminate and thus not usable.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Naashoibitosaurus ostromi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.