| Tlatolophus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
| |
| Holotype skull of Tlatolophus galorum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Subfamily: | †Lambeosaurinae |
| Tribe: | †Parasaurolophini |
| Genus: | †Tlatolophus Coria &Selgado, 1995 |
| Species: | †T. galorum |
| Type species | |
| †Tlatolophus galorum Ramírez-Velasco et al., 2021 | |
Tlatolophus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur belonging to the tribe Parasaurolophini. The only species is the type species, Tlatolophus galorum.[1]
Discovery and naming[]
The genus name means "word crest". The holotype, specimen CIC/P/147, was first discovered as a semi-articulated tail in 2005 in sediments of the Cerro del Pueblo Formation in Coahuila, Mexico. In 2013, the INAH and UNAM launched a joint project to recover it, and it was soon realized that it belonged to the most complete lambeosaurine known from Mexico with an almost complete skull, jaws, and additional parts of the postcranial skeleton including an articulated tail. It was officially and formally named as the new genus and species Tlatolophus galorum in 2021.[1]
The generic name comes from the Náhuatl word tlatolli, meaning "word", combined with Latin lophus ("crest") due to the crest's resemblance to the glyph "word" in Aztec iconography, resembling an inverse comma. The species is named after the Garza and López families named for their collaboration in collecting and preserving the specimen.[2]
Classification[]
Tlatolophus was assigned to the tribe Parasaurolophini in 2021 by Ramírez-Velasco in 2021, and the cladogram below is after their results:
Gallery[]
