First Dinosaur (Ornithopoda) from Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Oregon, U.S.A
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Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology ISSN: 0272-4634 (Print) 1937-2809 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujvp20 First dinosaur (Ornithopoda) from Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Oregon, U.S.A. Gregory J. Retallack, Jessica M. Theodor, Edward B. Davis, Samantha S. B. Hopkins & Paul Z. Barrett To cite this article: Gregory J. Retallack, Jessica M. Theodor, Edward B. Davis, Samantha S. B. Hopkins & Paul Z. Barrett (2018): First dinosaur (Ornithopoda) from Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Oregon, U.S.A., Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1486847 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1486847 View supplementary material Published online: 15 Oct 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 49 View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujvp20 Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e1486847 (5 pages) # by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1486847 SHORT COMMUNICATION FIRST DINOSAUR (ORNITHOPODA) FROM EARLY CRETACEOUS (ALBIAN) OF OREGON, U.S.A. GREGORY J. RETALLACK,*,1 JESSICA M. THEODOR,2 EDWARD B. DAVIS,1 SAMANTHA S. B. HOPKINS,1 and PAUL Z. BARRETT1 1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, 1275 E. 13th Avenue, Eugene, Oregon 97403, U.S.A, [email protected]; 2Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Retallack, G. J., J. M. Theodor, E. B. Davis, S. S. B. Hopkins, and P. Z. Barrett. 2018. First dino- saur (Ornithopoda) from Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Oregon, U.S.A. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/ 02724634.2018.1486847. A fossil toe bone discovered in 2015 by GJR is the first diag- (Wembley, Alberta), Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, nostic nonavian dinosaur fossil from Oregon, a state whose Montana), and Utah State Museum (Salt Lake City, Utah) Mesozoic rocks are mostly marine (Orr and Orr, 2012). This dis- were used to guide literature search for taxonomic placement covery is novel evidence of Cretaceous terrestrial environments of the Mitchell phalanx. A photogrammetric three-dimensional and faunas in Oregon. The pedal phalanx was recovered from the (3D) image of the bone as a PDF using Agisoft PhotoScan is mid–Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian) Hudspeth Shale and is available as Supplementary Data 1. here identified informally as the ‘Mitchell ornithopod.’ This new ornithopod fills a geographic gap between the Early Cretaceous ‘ ’ (Aptian) Ono ornithopod of northern California (Hilton et al., SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY 1997) and the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) ‘Sucia Island theropod’ of Washington (Peecook and Sidor, 2015), as one of DINOSAURIA Owen, 1842 the few nonavian dinosaur specimens known from marine rocks ORNITHISCHIA Seeley, 1887 of the Pacific Northwest. Other Pacific coastal nonavian dinosaurs from southeast Alaska to Baja California reviewed by Peecock ORNITHOPODA Marsh, 1881 and Sidor (2015) include a possible Oregon hadrosaur sacrum gen et sp. indet. from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Cape Sebastian Sandstone (Orr and Orr, 2012), but our examination of this unprepared specimen cannot yet determine whether it was a dino- Referred Material—UOF118600, a pedal phalanx. saur, marine turtle, or plesiosaur. Age and Occurrence—The locality, UO13418 Mitchell, is a Institutional Abbreviations—BM, British Museum, now gentle shale slope below low cliffs of lowest Hudspeth Formation Natural History Museum, London, U.K.; IRB, Institut Royal on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium; JRF, near Mitchell, Oregon, at roughly 44.6 N, 120.2 W.Thelocalityis Judith River Foundation, Malta, Montana, U.S.A.; MOR, in the Hudspeth Shale at a stratigraphic level of 374.9 m in the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, U.S.A.; UMM, nearby measured section (Fig. 1) of Wilkinson and Oles (1968). University of Manchester Museum, Manchester, U.K.; UO, The biostratigraphic age is late early Albian, in the Brewericeras Condon Collection, University of Oregon Museum of Natural hulenense zone (Jones et al., 1965). Associated fossils include the History, Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A. ammonites Brewericeras hulenense (UOF118598, UOF118606), Leconteites lecontei (UOF118597), Cleoniceras jonesi (UOF118596A–B), Anisoceras merriami (UOF118599), snail METHODS Amberleya dilleri (UOF118601), bivalves Lithophaga carolinensis (UOF118602), Entolium utukokense (UOF118603), Aucellina A single bone regarded as a dinosaur phalanx (UOF118600) dowlingi (UOF118604), an ichthyosaur centrum was collected from near Mitchell, Oregon (locality UO13418), (UOF118595A–B), and conifer wood (UOF118605). Many of along with an ichthyosaur centrum and marine invertebrates – these ammonites are endemic North American species, but (UOF11895 F118606) and cataloged into the Condon cosmopolitan ammonites also are found near the Mitchell locality, Collection of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History of which is stratigraphically above the local first appearance of the University of Oregon (paleo.uoregon.edu). Examination of Mortoniceras inflatum and below the local first appearance of specimens from the Museum of the North (Fairbanks, Alaska), Mortoniceras fallax,or102.5–103.0 Ma (Lehmann, 2015). Precise Royal Tyrrell Museum (Drumheller, Alberta), Currie Museum coordinates and further locality details are on file in the Prineville Office of the Bureau of Land Management and the Museum of *Corresponding author. Natural and Cultural History of the University of Oregon. Published online 15 Oct 2018 Retallack et al.—Cretaceous ornithopod from Oregon (e1486847-2) FIGURE 1. Stratigraphic location of the Mitchell ornithopod within a reconstructed geological section of the Hudspeth Formation (from Wilkinson and Oles, 1968), showing local ammonite zones (Jones et al., 1965) and first appearances of important ammonites, which are available in the Condon Collection of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon (paleo.uoregon.edu). Description—The putative dinosaur phalanx (Fig. 2) is wider phalanx with collateral pits is illustrated here in Figure 2J–L. mediolaterally (47.6 mm) than proximodistally (30.3 mm), with Generally, similar short phalanges with lateral rimmed basins like a moderately concave proximal end. The distal end has a the Mitchell bone are found in Iguanodon (Norman, 1980:figs. weakly saddle-shaped, convex condyle curved anteriorly 13 71–72), Corythosaurus (Brown, 1916:fig. 14), Edmontosaurus from vertical. A mediolateral sulcus on the dorsal surface is (Zheng et al., 2011:figs. 1–3, 5–6), Hypacrosaurus (Brown, continuous to the lateral surfaces, with a shallow basal ridge 1913:fig. 7), Brachylophosaurus(Fig. 2G–I; Prieto-Marquez, dividing it from a short plantar sulcus below. This shallow, 2007:fig. 6.7), and Saurolophus (Maryanska and Osmolska, rimmed, lateral basin is better preserved in other dinosaur pha- 1984:pl. 23, figs. 11a–b). The Mitchell ornithopod (Fig. 2A–F)is langes (Fig. 2G) than the worn and broken Mitchell specimens regarded as a third pedal phalanx of the central digit (III) of the (Fig. 2C, F) and is in the position where deep collateral pits right pes of an iguanodont or hadrosaur dinosaur, by comparison are seen on many other dinosaur phalanges (Fig. 2 L, O). A with these other ornithopods (Fig. 2I; Brown, 1913, 1916;Norman, basal rim to the lateral basins also distinguishes the Mitchell 1980;MaryanskaandOsmolska, 1984; Zheng et al., 2011). phalanx from dinosaur phalanges with a girdling mediolateral Ornithopods are common herbivores in Early Cretaceous rocks of sulcus (Fig. 2M–O). Utah and Wyoming, but at 102.5–103 Ma (late Albian); our phal- The maximum distal width is 47.6 mm, and the maximum anx falls within a gap in the North American dinosaur record proximal width is at least 46.6 mm. Exact measurement is com- between the Aptian–Albian Tenontosaurus and the Cenomanian promised by postmortem erosion of the cortex, especially Eolambia (McDonald et al., 2012). where the museum number has been placed (Fig. 2). Taxonomic and Anatomical Position—The lateral rimmed basin of the dorsal sulcus is distinct from a completely girdling sul- SIZE ESTIMATE OF WHOLE ANIMAL cus or waist in other large dinosaur phalanges that are shorter than wide in sauropods (Bonnan, 2005:figs. 16.8–16.9; D’Emic et al., The Mitchell ornithopod phalanx is robust, flattened, and 2011:figs. 1–2), stegosaurs (Maidment et al., 2015:figs. 76–77), wide, thus being a load-bearing subunguligrade toe bone from nodosaurs (Carpenter et al., 1995:fig. 16), ankylosaurs (Carpenter, an animal of substantial size (Moreno et al., 2007). Although 1984:fig. 5; Currie et al., 2011:figs. 9–10), and ceratopsians (Brown, mass cannot be precisely reconstructed without more complete 1914:fig. 19; Chinnery and Horner, 2007:fig. 4P). A ceratopsian material, comparison with six Cretaceous ornithopods known phalanx with girdling sulcus is illustrated here in Figure 2M–O. from complete skeletons (Hulke, 1882: BM39460; Norman, The shallow end to the dorsal sulcus is distinct from collateral pits 1980: IRB1534, 1536, 1561; Seebacher, 2001: BM5764, and a narrow waist, found in phalanges of theropods (White et al., IRB1535; Tennant, 2013: UMM12275; Tweet et al., 2008: 2016:fig.