Huallasaurus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of dinosaur}}

{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = Late Cretaceous,
~{{fossilrange|85|66}}

| image = Hadrosaur museum.jpg

| image_caption = Reconstructed skeleton at Natural Sciences Museum

| genus = Huallasaurus

| parent_authority = Rozadilla et al., 2022

| display_parents = 3

| species = australis

| authority = (Bonaparte et al., 1984)

| synonyms =

  • Kritosaurus australis et al., 1984
  • Secernosaurus australis (Bonaparte et al., 1984) Wagner, 2001

}}

Huallasaurus (meaning "duck lizard") is an extinct genus of saurolophine hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous Los Alamitos Formation of Patagonia in Argentina. The type and only species is H. australis. Originally named as a species of Kritosaurus in 1984,{{cite journal |last=Bonaparte |first=José |author-link=José Bonaparte |author2=Franchi, M.R. |author3=Powell, J.E. |author4= Sepulveda, E. |year=1984 |title=La Formación Los Alamitos (Campaniano-Maastrichtiano) del sudeste de Rio Negro, con descripcion de Kritosaurus australis n. sp. (Hadrosauridae). Significado paleogeografico de los vertebrados |journal=Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina |language=es |volume=39 |issue=3–4 |pages=284–299}} it was long considered a synonym of Secernosaurus{{cite journal |last=Prieto–Marquez |first=Alberto |author2=Salinas, Guillermo C. |year=2010 |title=A re–evaluation of Secernosaurus koerneri and Kritosaurus australis (Dinosauria, Hadrosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=813–837 |doi=10.1080/02724631003763508|bibcode=2010JVPal..30..813P |s2cid=85814033 }} before being recognized as its own distinct genus in a 2022 study, different from other members of Kritosaurini.{{cite journal |last1=Rozadilla |first1=Sebastián |last2=Brissón-Egli |first2=Federico |last3=Lisandro Agnolín |first3=Federico |last4=Aranciaga-Rolando |first4=Alexis Mauro |last5=Novas |first5=Fernando Emilio |year=2022 |title=A new hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Late Cretaceous of northern Patagonia and the radiation of South American hadrosaurids |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358834727 |journal=Journal of Systematic Palaeontology |volume=19 |issue=17 |pages=1207–1235 |doi=10.1080/14772019.2021.2020917|s2cid=247122005 }}

Discovery

The generic name, "Huallasaurus," combines "hualla," the Mapudungun word for "duck," and the Greek "sauros," meaning "lizard." The specific name, "australis," is derived from the Latin "australis," meaning "southern," after the discovery of the holotype specimen in southern Argentina.

Classification

File:Huallasaurus australis.png]]

Rozadilla et al. (2022) named Huallasaurus and the closely related Kelumapusaura, recovering them in a clade of entirely South American saurolophines. In the 2023 description of the South American hadrosauroid Gonkoken, Alarcón-Muñoz et al. recovered similar results, implementing a modified version of the phylogenetic matrix of Rozadilla et al. They named the clade containing Huallasaurus, Kelumapusaura, and other South American saurolophines as the Austrokritosauria, recovering it as the sister taxon to the Kritosaurini. The results of their phylogenetic analyses of Saurolophinae are displayed in the cladogram below:{{Cite journal |last1=Alarcón-Muñoz |first1=Jhonatan |last2=Vargas |first2=Alexander O. |last3=Püschel |first3=Hans P. |last4=Soto-Acuña |first4=Sergio |last5=Manríquez |first5=Leslie |last6=Leppe |first6=Marcelo |last7=Kaluza |first7=Jonatan |last8=Milla |first8=Verónica |last9=Gutstein |first9=Carolina S. |last10=Palma-Liberona |first10=José |last11=Stinnesbeck |first11=Wolfgang |last12=Frey |first12=Eberhard |last13=Pino |first13=Juan Pablo |last14=Bajor |first14=Dániel |last15=Núñez |first15=Elaine |first16=Héctor |last16=Ortiz |first17=David |last17=Rubilar-Rogers |first18=Penélope |last18=Cruzado-Caballero |date=2023-06-16 |title=Relict duck-billed dinosaurs survived into the last age of the dinosaurs in subantarctic Chile |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=9 |issue=24 |pages=eadg2456 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adg2456 |pmid=37327335 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=10275600 |bibcode=2023SciA....9G2456A }}

{{clade| style=font-size:90%;line-height:85%

|label1=Saurolophinae

|1={{clade

|1={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=Wulagasaurus60px

|2=Acristavus60px }}

|2={{clade

|1=Maiasaura 60px

|2={{clade

|1=Probrachylophosaurus 60px

|2=Brachylophosaurus 60px }} }} }}

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|label1=Austrokritosauria

|1={{clade

|1=Secernosaurus 60px

|2={{clade

|1=Bonapartesaurus 60px

|2={{clade

|1=Kelumapusaura 60px

|2=Huallasaurus 60px }} }} }}

|label2=Kritosaurini

|2={{clade

|1=Kritosaurus 60px

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=Rhinorex 60px

|2=Gryposaurus latidens }}

|3={{clade

|1=Gryposaurus notabilis 60px

|2=Gryposaurus monumentensis }} }} }} }}

|2={{clade

|1=Kamuysaurus 60px

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=Prosaurolophus 60px

|2={{clade

|1=Saurolophus osborni 60px

|2=Saurolophus angustirostris 60px}} }}

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=Laiyangosaurus 60px

|2=Kerberosaurus 60px }}

|2={{clade

|1=Shantungosaurus 60px

|2={{clade

|1=Edmontosaurus regalis

60px

|2=Edmontosaurus annectens 60px

}} }} }} }} }} }} }} }}

Paleoecology

Huallasaurus is known from the Late Cretaceous Los Alamitos Formation of Río Negro Province, Argentina. Aeolosaurus rionegrinus, a titanosaurian sauropod, has also been named from this formation.

References