A partial articulated hadrosaurid skeleton from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Ganzhou area, Jiangxi Province, China

ABSTRACT

We describe the first partial articulated skeleton from the Ganzhou area, Jianxi Province, China. This basin has not been forthcoming in yielding hadrosaurid remains. The new specimen consists of an articulated rib cage belonging to a relatively large (no less than 9 m in length) hadrosaurid. It was collected from Maastrichtian strata of the Hekou Formation. This is the first partial skeleton of a large hadrosaurid dinosaur recovered from South southern China and confirms the presence of relatively large members of the clade previously suggested by ichnological evidence.

KEYWORDS:

• Hadrosauridae
• osteology
• systematics
• evolution
• Cretaceous

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41790455, 41772008); Support was also provided by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity of the Government of Spain via the Ramón y Cajal Program [RyC-2015-17388] presented to A. P.-M. and a grant [CGL2016-73230-P] presented to Àngel Galobart at the ICP, and the CERCA Program of the Generalitat de Catalunya. We are thankful to Phil Bell and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments and advice that greatly improved the quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.