Thursday, May 27, 2010

Jeyawati rugoculus


Image by Lukas Panzarin
Congrats to Andrew MacDonald for describing Jeyawati rugoculus, a 91 million year old basal hadrosauroid from western New Mexico.

The partial skull and other fragments of Jeyawati were discovered by paleontologist Douglas Wolfe, principal investigator of the Zuni Basin Paleontological Project. Subsequent excavation and collection was carried out for 13 years with the aid of James Kirkland, state paleontologist with the Utah Geological Survey, and volunteers from the Southwest Paleontological Society, among others.

The research team published their findings in the May issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. link