The bone
Hypothetical recontruction
The "Mitchell ornithopod" is the informal nickname of an ornithopod dinosaur discovered near Mitchell, Oregon, being the first recorded dinosaur from Oregon but not the first discovered; an ornithopod sacrum was discovered in the 1960s and excavated in 1994, but it was not described until 2019. The single known bone, F118B00, was a toe bone, specifically the third phalanx of the central digit of the right hindlimb foot, and was discovered by Gregory Retallack in 2015 while on an annual field trip with his students, in a layer of the Albian-aged Hudspeth Formation.[1] No excavation was required - the bone was found resting on the ground and Retalllack immediately knew it was different from the various marine fossils scattered nearby.[2] The bone was described in 2018 by Gregory Retallack, Jessica Theodor, Edward Davis, Samantha Hopkins and Paul Barrett.[1] It was part of a bloated carcass swept out into the ocean, likely originating from Idaho.
The bone was later compared to more complete remains of other ornithopods and the "Mitchell ornithopod" bone most closely matched those of hadrosaurs and iguanodonts, although it was likely a basal ornithopod.[1] Rettalack believes that the bone belonged to a new genus, although there is not enough sufficient remains to base this claim on.[2]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Retallack, Gregory J.; Jessica M. Theodor; Edward B. Davis; Samantha S. Hopkins, and Paul Z. Barrett. 2018. First Oregon dinosaur (Ornithopoda) from Early Cretaceous (Albian) of Oregon, U.S.A. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 1-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "First Comfirned Evidence Of Dinosaurs In Oregon". The Pacific Sentinel. https://pacsentinel.com/first-confirmed-evidence-of-dinosaurs-in-oregon/.