#macrogryphosaurus

[foreyarning]

Various ornithischian-focused paleoart from November 2022.

[dinodorks]

A Macrogryphosaurus defends its young from a group of Giganotosaurs - Chased by Dinosaurs (2002).

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Macrogryphosaurus gondwanicus

By José Carlos Cortés on @ryuukibart​

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Name: Macrogryphosaurus gondwanicus

Name Meaning: Big Enigmatic Reptile

First Described: 2007

Described By: Calvo et. al. 

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Neornithischia, Thescelosauridae, Thescelosaurinae, Elasmaria

So by far the weirdest consequence of the recent Boyd study is that the Elasmarians - previously regarded as a group of Iguanodonts, or the more derived members of Ornithopoda - have since been placed completely outside of Ornithopoda, not only in Neornithischia, but as Thescelosaurines. It gets weirder here with Macrogryphosaurus, which is such a large and Iguanodontian-like animal that one would never guess that it might be a Thescelosaurine (of course, the Boyd study does need to be repeated, however, so many Ornithopod and Iguanodontian categories ended up being somewhat wastebasket like, that I will go with this study until further notice). In fact, it with other southern-hemisphere Thescelosaurines forms a strange group known as Elasmaria. Macrogryphosaurus was found in the Portezuelo Formation in Patagonia, Argentina, dating back to the Turonian age of the Early Cretaceous, around 93 to 89 million years ago. It was around 6 meters long, and was the largest Thescelosaurid known. It was probably mainly bipedal, however, it probably was able to move on all fours when necessary. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrogryphosaurus

Boyd, C. A. 2015. The systematic relationships and biogeographic history of ornithischian dinosaurs. PeerJ 3:e1523 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1523.

Shout out goes to @heystooopid!