''Nevadadromeus'' (meaning "Nevada runner") is an extinct genus of small
thescelosaurine ornithischian
Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek s ...
dinosaur, from the
Willow Tank Formation
The Willow Tank Formation is a geologic formation which outcrops in the U.S. state of Nevada. Initially believed to be of Early Cretaceous (Albian) age, later studies have concluded that it was more likely to be of Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) a ...
of
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The genus contains a single species, ''N. schmitti'', which represents the first non-avian dinosaur named from Nevada.
Discovery and naming
The ''Nevadadromeus''
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 several ...
specimen, NSC 2008-002 was discovered near the
Valley of Fire
Valley of Fire State Park is a public recreation and nature preservation area covering nearly located south of Overton, Nevada. The state park derives its name from red sandstone formations, the Aztec Sandstone, which formed from shifting sa ...
in 2008 and the bones were prepared for an event in
Henderson, Nevada
Henderson is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It is the second largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with an estimated population of 320,189 in 2019. The city is part of the Las Vegas Vall ...
in 2021.
A second
ornithopod
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 world ...
from Nevada, a
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 ...
, was also leaked during the event, but it is was not ready for public view until 2022. ''Nevadadromeus'' was formally published in October 2022.
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
"dromeus", meaning "runner". The specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, "''schmitti''", honors geologist James G. Schmitt, who initially described the geology of the Willow Tank Formation.
Classification
The fossil remains of ''Nevadadromeus'' contain features of both thescelosaurines and orodromines, but the describers find it more likely to be a thescelosaurine. This makes it the oldest member of its subfamily from North America, as all other thescelosaurines date to the Maastrichtian.
References
Cenomanian life
Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America
Cretaceous North America
Fossil taxa described in 2022
Ornithischian genera
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