''Atlascopcosaurus'' () is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of herbivorous basal

iguanodont Iguanodontia (the iguanodonts) is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include ''Camptosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Iguanodon'', '' Tenontosaurus'', and the hadrosaurids or "duck-bil ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the Early Cretaceous of the present Australia.

Classification

The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...

, NMV P166409, was found in 1984 at the Dinosaur Cove East site at the coast of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, in layers of the

Eumeralla Formation The Eumeralla Formation is a geological formation in Victoria, Australia whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. It is Aptian to Albian in age. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, particularl ...

dating from the early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

, Aptian-

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

consists of a piece of the upper jaw, a partial

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

with teeth, and referred specimens include teeth, another maxilla, and dentaries. Although the rest of the skeleton is unknown it can be inferred from closely related species that the genus represents a small bipedal herbivore. By extrapolation it has been estimated that it was about two to three metres (6.5–10 ft) long and weighed approximately 125 kg. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

, ''Atlascopcosaurus loadsi'', was named and described by

Tom Rich Thomas Rich (born c. 1940), generally known as Tom Rich, is an Australian palaeontologist. He is, as of 2019, Senior Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Museums Victoria. Education and career *He was a student of Professor Ruben Arthur Stirt ...

and

Patricia Vickers-Rich Patricia Arlene Vickers-Rich (born 11 July 1944), also known as Patricia Rich, is an Australian Professor of Palaeontology and Palaeobiology, who researches the environmental changes that have impacted Australia (including the ancient super ...

in 1989. The generic name refers to the

Atlas Copco Atlas Copco (Copco from Compagnie Pneumatique Commerciale) is a Swedish multinational industrial company that was founded in 1873. It manufactures industrial tools and equipment. The Atlas Copco Group is a global industrial group of companies ...

Company who had provided equipment for the dig that discovered this dinosaur in 1984. The project revealed 85 fossil bone fragments of various species. This opened the door for more excavation and, along with other companies, Atlas Copco helped over ten years excavate about sixty metres of tunnel in a cliff wall at the sea shore. The specific name, ''loadsi'', honours William Loads, the state manager for Atlas Copco at the time, who assisted during the dig.Rich, T. and Rich, P., 1989, "Polar dinosaurs and biotas of the Early Cretaceous of southeastern Australia", ''National Geographic Research'' 5(1): 15-53 Despite being assigned to Hypsilophodontidae by its describers, the original classification of ''Atlascoposaurus'' was considered untenable given that Hypsilophodontidae has been recovered as paraphyletic in subsequent cladistic studies and ''Atlascopcosaurus'' was tabulated as a basal member of

Ornithopoda Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous worl ...

in the second edition of the ''Dinosauria''. Because the teeth are not species-specific and the maxilla fragment is little informative, Agnolin ''et al.'' (2010) treated it as a '' nomen dubium'', even though they noted similarities with the

elasmaria Elasmaria is a clade of ornithopods known from Cretaceous deposits in South America, Antarctica, and Australia that contains many bipedal ornithopods that were previously considered "hypsilophodonts".Madzia, Daniel; Boyd, Clint A.; Mazuch, Marti ...

ns ''

Anabisetia ''Anabisetia'' ( ) is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of Patagonia, South America. It was a small bipedal herbivore, around long. Discovery Argentine paleontologists Rodolfo Coria and Jorge Orlando Calvo nam ...

'' and ''

Gasparinisaura ''Gasparinisaura'' (meaning "Gasparini's lizard") is a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The first fossils of ''Gasparinisaura'' were found in 1992 near Cinco Saltos in Río Negro Province, Argentina. The type sp ...

'' from Patagonia. However, Boyd (2015) considered the genus valid and recovered it at the base of

Iguanodontia Iguanodontia (the iguanodonts) is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include ''Camptosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Iguanodon'', '' Tenontosaurus'', and the hadrosaurids or "duck-bil ...

in a clade with ''Anabisetia'', ''Gasparinisaura'', and '' Qantassaurus''.Boyd CA. (2015) The systematic relationships and biogeographic history of ornithischian dinosaurs. PeerJ 3:e1523 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1523

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q131399 Ornithopods Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Australia Paleontology in Victoria Fossil taxa described in 1989 Taxa named by Patricia Vickers-Rich Taxa named by Tom Rich Ornithischian genera