Pararhabdodon isonensis and Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus: a new clade of lambeosaurine hadrosaurids from Eurasia

We present new anatomical information showing that Koutalisaurus kohlerorum, from the Maastrichtian of Lleida Province, northeastern Spain, is most probably the junior synonym of Pararhabdodon isonensis from the same region. Dentary and maxillary characters previously considered as autapomorphies of K. kohlerorum and P isonensis, respectively, are shown to be synapomorphies uniting the latter with Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus from the Campanian of the Wangshi Group, Shandong Province, China.

This study provided conclusive evidence of the presence of the Lambeosaurinae in Europe. Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus and Pararhabdodon isonensis were inferred to form a clade of basal lambeosaurines characterized by a maxilla with an elevated articular facet for the jugal (continuous with the ectopterygoid ridge) and an extremely medially projected symphyseal region of the dentary. This clade originated in Asia during the middle or late Campanian. Pararhabdodon isonensis or its ancestors migrated from Asia to the Iberian island of the European archipelago. Reconstruction of ancestral areas by Fitch parsimony attributes the European occurrence of P isonensis to a single dispersal event from Asia no later than middle to late Campanian. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.