''Jaxartosaurus'' (meaning "Jaxartes lizard" after the early name of the

Syr Darya The Syr Darya (, ),, , ; rus, Сырдарья́, Syrdarjja, p=sɨrdɐˈrʲja; fa, سيردريا, Sirdaryâ; tg, Сирдарё, Sirdaryo; tr, Seyhun, Siri Derya; ar, سيحون, Seyḥūn; uz, Sirdaryo, script-Latn/. historically known ...

) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

hadrosaur Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which includ ...

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 ...

similar to ''

Corythosaurus ''Corythosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of hadrosaurid "duck-billed" dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period (geology), Period, about 77–75.7 million years ago. It lived in what is now North America. Its name means "helmet lizard", derived fr ...

'' which lived during the Late

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 th ...

. Its

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

were found in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Description

''Jaxartosaurus'' had a large crest that it may have used for visual identification, or to vocalize with members of the same species, as inferred for other

lambeosaurines Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs. Classification Lambeosaurines have been traditionally split into the tribes or clades Parasaurolophini (''Parasaurolophus'', ''Charonosaurus'', others (?).) and Lambeosaurini (''Coryt ...

. They were likely herbivores, grazing on low-lying plants.

Taxonomy

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 specimen ...

, ''J. aralensis'', was first described by

Anatoly Riabinin Anatoliy Riabinin (11 June 1874-2 February 1942) was a Russian geologist and vertebrate paleontologist. In the 1910s, Riabinin led the first paleontological expeditions to the Amur (in 1914 and 1916–17). The hadrosaurid '' Amurosaurus riabinini' ...

in 1937.Riabinin, A.M. (1937). "A New Finding of Dinosaurs in the Trans-Baikal Region". Ezhegodn. Vserossijskogo Palaeont. Obstcg. 11: 142–144 A second species, ''J. fuyunensis'', was described by Wu (1984) for a dentary from Xinjiang, China, but is

dubious Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them. Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty, ...

.Weishampel, D. B. & Horner, J. R. 1990. Hadrosauridae. In: Weishampel, D. B. et al. (eds.). The Dinosauria. Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley. pp. 534-561.

References

Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Lambeosaurines Fossil taxa described in 1937 Ornithischian genera {{ornithopod-stub

Description

Taxonomy

See also

References