Dysalotosaurus

Dysalotosaurus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 152–151 Ma
↓
D. lettowvorbecki skeleton in Berlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Suborder: †Ornithopoda
Family: †Dryosauridae
Genus: †Dysalotosaurus
Virchow, 1919
Species: †D. lettowvorbecki
Binomial name
Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki
Virchow, 1919

Dysalotosaurus (meaning 'uncatchable lizard') is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a dryosaurid iguanodontian, and its fossils have been found in late Kimmeridgian age-rocks (Late Jurassic) of the Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania. The type species of Dysalotosaurus is D. lettowvorbecki. D lettowvorbecki was named by Rudolf Virchow in 1919 after the Imperial German Army Officer, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. It has long been referred to approximate contemporary Dryosaurus but newer studies reject this synonymy.[1][2]

Paleobiology

Side view of skeleton

Dysalotosaurus was a precocial dinosaur, which experienced sexual maturity at ten years, had an indeterminate growth pattern, and maximum growth rates comparable to a large kangaroo.[3]

Palaeopathology

In 2011 paleontologists Florian Witzmann and Oliver Hampe from the Museum für Naturkunde and colleagues discovered that deformations of some Dysalotosaurus bones were likely caused by a viral infection similar to Paget's disease of bone. This is the oldest evidence of viral infection known to science.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Tom R. Hübner & Oliver W. M. Rauhut (2010). "A juvenile skull of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Ornithischia: Iguanodontia), and implications for cranial ontogeny, phylogeny, and taxonomy in ornithopod dinosaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 160 (2): 366–396. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00620.x.
  2. ↑ McDonald AT, Kirkland JI, DeBlieux DD, Madsen SK, Cavin J, et al. (2010). "New Basal Iguanodonts from the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah and the Evolution of Thumb-Spiked Dinosaurs". PLoS ONE. 5 (11): e14075. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014075. PMC 2989904Freely accessible. PMID 21124919.
  3. ↑ Hübner, T. R. (2012). Laudet, Vincent, ed. "Bone Histology in Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Ornithischia: Iguanodontia) – Variation, Growth, and Implications". PLoS ONE. 7 (1): e29958. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029958. PMC 3253128Freely accessible. PMID 22238683.
  4. ↑ Witzmann, F., Claeson, K.M., Hampe, O., Wieder, F., Hilger, A., Manke, I., Niederhagen, M., Rothschild, B.M. & Asbach, P. 2011. "Paget disease of bone in a Jurassic dinosaur". Current Biology 21(17) R647-R648 (13 September 2011) doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.006 biology/pdf/PIIS0960982211008815.pdf?intermediate=true


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