{"id":72708,"date":"2025-05-04T02:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T02:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/72708\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T02:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T02:27:09","slug":"paleontologists-describe-new-species-of-rhabdodontid-dinosaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/72708\/","title":{"rendered":"Paleontologists Describe New Species of Rhabdodontid Dinosaur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Named Obelignathus septimanicus, the new species inhabited the European Archipelago around 72 million years ago (Cretaceous period) and belonged to a family of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaurs called Rhabdodontidae.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Life<\/a><\/p>\n

Life restoration of Obelignathus septimanicus in the Late Cretaceous environment recorded in the \u2018Gr\u00e8s \u00e0 Reptiles\u2019 Formation, with a pair of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs in the background. Image credit: Edyta Felcyn-Kowalska.<\/p>\n

Rhabdodontid dinosaurs were small- to medium-sized, probably habitually bipedal herbivores between 2 and 6 m (6.6-20 feet) in length.<\/p>\n

These dinosaurs were characterized by a rather stocky build, with strong hind limbs, short forelimbs, a long tail and a comparatively large, triangular skull that tapers anteriorly and ends in a pointy snout.<\/p>\n

They inhabited the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago, an extensive archipelago with numerous small and large islands situated in a shallow tropical sea.<\/p>\n

Currently, the family comprises less than ten species, which have been found in southern France, northern Spain, eastern Austria, western Hungary and western Romania.<\/p>\n

\u201cRhabdodontids are commonly considered to represent a group of small to medium-sized ornithischian dinosaurs endemic for the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago,\u201d said Dr. \u0141ukasz Czepi\u0144ski and Dr. Daniel Madzia, both from the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cEight to nine distinct species are currently recognized based on specimens unearthed from eastern Austria, southern France, western Hungary, western Romania, and northern Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, the understanding of the diversity of Rhabdodontidae and their intrarelationships remains far from complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fossilized remains of Obelignathus septimanicus \u2014 a right dentary \u2014 were found in the \u2018Gr\u00e8s \u00e0 Reptiles\u2019 Formation in southern France.<\/p>\n

The specimen was previously assigned to a species named \u2018Rhabdodon\u2019 septimanicus.<\/p>\n

\u201cRhabdodon septimanicus is a poorly known species from the Upper Campanian to Lower Maastrichtian of southern France,\u201d the paleontologists said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was established based on a particularly robust dentary bone that has been subjected to conflicting taxonomic interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur restudy of the specimen, combined with a multivariate and phylogenetic assessment, shows that this species is a clear morphological outlier among European rhabdodontomorphs, providing a basis for its assignment to a new genus, Obelignathus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough further large-scale studies, especially detailed osteological descriptions, are needed to clarify the taxonomic significance of certain European rhabdodontomorphs, our results indicate that the group exhibits greater diversity than currently recognized, with several sympatric species co-occurring, at least in southern France and possibly also in Romania.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s paper<\/a> was published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

\u0141. Czepi\u0144ski & D. Madzia. 2025. Exploring the diversity and disparity of rhabdodontomorph ornithopods from the Late Cretaceous European archipelago. Sci Rep 15, 15209; doi: 10.1038\/s41598-025-98083-z<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Named Obelignathus septimanicus, the new species inhabited the European Archipelago around 72 million years ago (Cretaceous period) and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[36136,11836,299,36137,1505,36,36138,36139,36140,36141,36142,36143,36144,36145,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-72708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-cretaceous","9":"tag-dinosaur","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european-archipelago","12":"tag-fossil","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-gres-a-reptiles-formation","15":"tag-obelignathus","16":"tag-obelignathus-septimanicus","17":"tag-ornithopoda","18":"tag-rhabdodon","19":"tag-rhabdodon-septimanicus","20":"tag-rhabdodontidae","21":"tag-rhabdodontomorpha","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114447203936384268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}