Ajnabia (left) or Tlatolophus (right)?
Voting ended onMar 9, 2023
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Great Seafarer Stranger
Time: 68 to 66 million years ago (Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous)
Location: Upper member of the Couche III Formation, Ouled Abdoun Basin, north-central Morocco
Ajnabia is an extremely small (possibly the smallest) hadrosaur, specifically a European lambeosaurine. Finding one in Morocco was a legitimate surprise discovery, since northern Africa was fully separated from Europe by ocean at the time. Known from parts of the jaw, most of what we know about it is inferred from its probable close relatives, the North African-European Maastrichtian hadrosaurs - though the crests of these animals are not well known, it is presumable they for the group would have been hollow and shaped in different ways to produce different sounds based on species, including Ajnabia. As in other hadrosaurs, it would have been robust, with long robust and stiff tails, muscular hind limbs with three toed feet, and strong slender forelimbs ending in weird hoof-like structures. They also had rows and rows of densely packed teeth built for grinding through a variety of vegetation. It probably got from Eurasia to Africa via oceanic dispersal, possibly even swimming from one landmass to another. At less than four meters long, it would have been dwarfed by its newfound neighbors, large dinosaurs such as the abelisaurid Chenanisaurus, and a yet-unnamed titanosaur. There were also, of course, azhdarchids in the form of Phosphatodraco and pteranodontid Tethydraco, and three separate types of Nyctosaurids - Alcione, Simurghia, and Barbaridactylus (you may recognize this lineup from a certain paleo doc). On the ocean side of things, mosasaurs, elasmosaurs, sharks, fish, and other marine life filled the seas to the brim, making it even more of a wonder that Ajnabia got over to Morocco safely!
Artwork by Joaquin Eng Ponce, written by @zygodactylus
Artwork by Joaquin Eng Ponce, written by Meig
Name Meaning: Gazra and López’s Word Crest
Time: 73 million years ago (Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous)
Location: Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuila, Mexico
Tlatolophus was a Lambeosaur - so another crested hadrosaur - from Mexico, a place that we don’t talk about the fossils of nearly enough! The most complete Lambeosaur known from Mexico, the skull and large portions of the skeleton are known, including the tail. At about 8 meters long, Tlatolophus had a tall skull and thick tail, and the usual hooved front feet of hadrosaurs. Its crest was long, low, and angled backwards, much like the glyph for “word” in Aztec writings - hence its name! Given the unique shape, it probably made a unique sound, different from other hadrosaurs. Interestingly, it actually seems to have been closely related to Parasaurolophus and its relatives, making it another member of the Parasaurolophini group! As a hadrosaur, it would have been a social animal, with behaviors such as communal nature and communication. The Cerro del Pueblo formation was a coastal ecosystem, filled with a variety of unnamed dinosaurs, but also Coahuilaceratops, Kritosaurus, Latirhinus, Velafrons, Paraxenisaurus (the first potential Deinocheirid from North America), as well as pterosaurs, turtles, fish, and multituberculate mammals.
