''Malefica'' (meaning "witch" or "sorceress") is a genus of

hadrosaurid 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 incl ...

dinosaur from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

(

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian ...

) Aguja Formation of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...

. The type and only species is ''Malefica deckerti''.

Discovery and naming

The holotype of ''Malefica'', TxVP 41917-1, is a partial left maxilla recovered from Bruja Canyon in Big Bend National Park. In 2002, it was assigned to the genus ''

Kritosaurus ''Kritosaurus'' is an incompletely known genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It lived about 74.5-66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. The name means "separated lizard" (referring to the arrangement of the cheek ...

'', as ''cf. K. navajovius''. Twenty years later, it was discovered to contain a number of useful diagnostic traits that allow it to be described as a new taxon, despite being fragmentary. The chosen generic name, "''Malefica''", means "witch" or "sorceress", also the root word of "

maleficent Maleficent ( or ) is a fictional character who appears as the main antagonist in Walt Disney Productions' 16th animated feature film, ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). She is represented as an evil fairy and the self-proclaimed " Mistress of All Evi ...

", referring to its discovery in Bruja Canyon (''bruja'' being Spanish for "witch"). The specific name, "''deckerti''", honours Frank Deckert, the specimen's discoverer and former superintendent of Big Bend National Park.

Classification

Prieto-Márquez performed a phylogenetic analysis which recovered ''Malefica'' as a basal member of the Hadrosauridae, outside the clade Saurolophidae (=Euhadrosauria), containing the major subfamilies

Lambeosaurinae 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 ('' C ...

and

Saurolophinae Saurolophinae is a subfamily of hadrosaurid dinosaurs. It has since the mid-20th century generally been called the Hadrosaurinae, a group of largely non-crested hadrosaurs related to the crested sub-family Lambeosaurinae. However, the name Hadro ...

. This, along with the recovery of several hadrosauromorph taxa at the base of Hadrosauridae, adds to a greater diversity of non-saurolophid hadrosaurids known from the

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. T ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

Paleoenvironment

The Aguja Formation outcrops both in Texas and the neighboring Mexican states of Chihuahua and

Coahuila Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of Nu ...

. ''Malefica'' is known from the Texan side. Other animals found in this area include the contemporary basal hadrosaurid ''

Aquilarhinus ''Aquilarhinus'' (meaning "eagle snout" after the unusual beak morphology) is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaur from the Aguja Formation from Texas in the United States. The type and only species is ''Aquilarhinus palimentus''. Due to ...

'', the lambeosaurine '' Angulomastacator'', the pachycephalosaur ''

Texacephale ''Texacephale'' is a pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Its fossils come from the Aguja Formation of Big Bend National Park, in Texas, and were described in 2010 by Longrich, Sankey and Tanke. The gener ...

'', the ceratopsid '' Agujaceratops'', a dromaeosaurid similar to ''

Saurornitholestes ''Saurornitholestes'' ("lizard-bird thief") is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Canada (Alberta) and the United States (Montana, New Mexico, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina). Two spec ...

'', and the giant alligatoroid ''

Deinosuchus ''Deinosuchus'' () is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian, related to modern alligators and caimans, that lived 82 to 73 million years ago (Ma), during the late Cretaceous period. The name translates as "terrible crocodile" and ...

''.

References

{{Portal bar, Dinosaurs, Cretaceous, Texas Hadrosaurs Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Fossil taxa described in 2022 Ornithischian genera