Cast of Lurdusaurus forelimb at the Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
†Ornithischia
Clade:
†Ornithopoda
Clade:
†Styracosterna
Clade:
†Hadrosauriformes
Genus:
†Lurdusaurus Taquet and Russell, 1999
Species:
†L. arenatus
Binomial name
†Lurdusaurus arenatus
Taquet and Russell, 1999
Lurdusaurus ("heavy lizard") is a genus of massive and unusually shaped iguanodont dinosaur from the Elrhaz Formation in Niger. It contains one species, L. arenatus. The formation dates to the Early Cretaceous, roughly 112 million years ago. Lurdusaurus has a highly atypical body plan for an iguanodont, with a small skull, long neck, rotund torso, and powerful forelimbs and claws, somewhat reminiscent of a ground sloth. Its metacarpals (wrist bones) are fused and reinforced into a large block, and the thumb spike is remarkably enormous. These would have allowed the hand to have functioned almost like a ball-and-chain flail. Lurdusaurus is estimated to have been 7–9 m (23–30 ft) long and 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high when on all-fours, but its stomach would have been only 70 cm (2 ft 4 in) off the ground. It may have weighed 2.5–5.5 t (2.8–6.1 short tons), conspicuously heavy for an iguanodontid this size.
Paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz Jr. speculated Lurdusaurus may have behaved much like a hippo. It lived in a forested, riverine environment alongside the iguanodonts Elrhazosaurus and Ouranosaurus, the sauropod Nigersaurus, an undescribed titanosaurid, the spinosaurid Suchomimus, the carcharodontosaurid Eocarcharia, the abelisaurid Kryptops, and an undescribed noasaurid. The site also yielded several crocodylomorph species and a pterosaur.
Lurdusaurus ("heavy lizard") is a genus of massive and unusually shaped iguanodont dinosaur from the Elrhaz Formation in Niger. It contains one species...
sauropod Nigersaurus taqueti, and ornithopods Ouranosaurus nigeriensis, Lurdusaurus arenatus, and Elrhazosaurus nigeriensis. In their 2022 description of...
dominated by inland floodplains (a riparian zone). After the iguanodontian Lurdusaurus, Nigersaurus was the most numerous megaherbivore. Other herbivores from...
1700 and then later described in 1999 as the holotype of the new taxon Lurdusaurus arenatus. While the third expedition did not turn up additional iguanodontian...
Tanzania. Dinosaurs portal Halszkaraptor Koreaceratops Liaoningosaurus Lurdusaurus Smyth, Robert S.H.; Ibrahim, Nizar; Martill, David M. (October 2020)...
than previously estimated numbers for more primitive iguanodonts like Lurdusaurus and Iguanodon (both at 19%). This demonstrated a previously unrecognized...
coelacanth Mawsonia. The dinosaur fauna was represented by the iguanodontian Lurdusaurus, which was the most common dinosaur in the region, and its relative Ouranosaurus;...
iguanodontians like Ouranosaurus nigeriensis, Elrhazosaurus nigeriensis, Lurdusaurus arenatus, and two sauropods: Nigersaurus taqueti, and an unnamed titanosaur...
Material Notes Images Elrhazosaurus E. nigeriensis "Femora." A dryosaurid Lurdusaurus L. arenatus "Partial skull, fragmentary postcranial skeleton." Ouranosaurus...
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