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Rhabdodontomorpha

Rhabdodontomorpha Temporal range: Cretaceous, 125–66 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Muttaburrasaurus mount at the Queensland Museum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	†Ornithischia
Clade:	†Neornithischia
Clade:	†Ornithopoda
Clade:	†Iguanodontia
Clade:	†Rhabdodontomorpha Dieudonné et al., 2016
Subgroups
†Ampelognathus? †Fostoria? †Muttaburrasaurus? †Tenontosauridae?Fonseca et al., 2024[1] †Convolosaurus? †Iani †Tenontosaurus †Rhabdodontoidea Poole, 2022[2] †Mochlodon? †Transylvanosaurus? †Rhabdodontidae

Rhabdodontomorpha is a clade of basal iguanodont dinosaurs. This group was named in 2016 in the context of the description, based on Spanish findings of an early member of the Rhabdodontidae. A cladistic analysis was conducted in which it was found that Muttaburrasaurus was the sister species of the Rhabdodontidae sensu Weishampel. Therefore, Paul-Emile Dieudonné, Thierry Tortosa, Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor, José Ignacio Canudo and Ignacio Díaz-Martínez defined Rhabdodontomorpha as a nodal clade: the group consisting of the last common ancestor of Rhabdodon priscus Matheron, 1869 and Muttaburrasaurus langdoni Bartholomai and Molnar, 1981; and all its descendants. Within the clade Zalmoxes and Mochlodon are also included.^[3] The clade is characterized by the following synapomorphies:^[4]

• the outline of the dorsal iliac margin is sigmoidal in dorsal view, with the postacetabular process deflected medialward and the pre-acetabular process deflected laterally
• the dorsal iliac margin is mediolaterally broader and swollen from above the ischiac peduncle anteriorly (present in Muttaburrasaurus) or above the postacetabular process all along (present in Zalmoxes spp.)
• the presence of a weak, dorsally convex ridge on the ventromedial side of their postacetabular process
• the ischiac peduncle of the ilium is lenticular and uniquely anteroposteriorly long
• the acetabulum is noticeably low

The group consists of small to large plant eaters from Europe and Gondwana. It must have split from other iguanodont groups during the Middle Jurassic.^[3] In 2020, the Australian iguanodont Fostoria was also found to belong to this clade.^[4] Iani, described in 2023, is interpreted as a transitional taxon between Tenontosaurus and Rhabdodontidae.^[5]

References[edit]

Paleontology