Ornithotarsus
Hadrosaurid dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ornithotarsus (lit. 'bird ankle') is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now the Merchantville Formation about 84 million to 78 million years ago.
| Ornithotarsus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, ~ | |
|---|---|
| |
| Holotype of Ornithotarsus immanis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Ornithopoda |
| Family: | †Hadrosauridae |
| Genus: | †Ornithotarsus Cope, 1869 |
| Species: | †O. immanis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Ornithotarsus immanis Cope, 1869 | |
Taxonomy
Ornithotarsus immanis was described in 1869 on the basis of YPM 3221, a fragmentary hindlimb comprising a distal tibia and fibula as well as ankle bones unearthed from the Merchantville Formation of Raritan Bay of New Jersey.[1] Although subsequently treated as a synonym of Hadrosaurus, Prieto-Marquez et al. (2006) found Ornithotarsus to share no diagnostic traits with the H. foulkii holotype and declared it a nomen dubium undetermined beyond Hadrosauridae, and Brownstein (2021) agreed with this assessment.[2][3]
