Burianosaurus Explained

Burianosaurus is an extinct genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in what is now the Czech Republic (it was found in 2003 near the city of Kutná Hora), being the first validly named dinosaur from that country. The type species, B. augustai, was named in 2017; the genus name honours the Czech palaeoartist Zdeněk Burian, and the species name honours the Czech palaeontologist Josef Augusta.[1] The holotype specimen is a femur discovered in sediments belonging to the Peruc-Korycany Formation in 2003, which was described as possibly belonging to an iguanodont in 2005.[2]

Classification

When the fossil was first described in 2005, it was said to be most morphologically similar to Early Cretaceous members of Iguanodontidae, as opposed to later taxa such as Rhabdodon. Madzia et al. (2017), the study which named the genus, ran two phylogenetic analyses to test the relationships of the taxon. The first, based on the matrix of MacDonald et al. (2012), found it within the clade Rhabdodontomorpha, with support very strong for it being outside of Ankylopollexia. The analysis based on the Boyd et al. (2015) matrix, which they considered more strongly supported, due to better taxon sampling of basal ornithopods and neornithischians, found it to be one of the most basal ornithopods, sister to the clade Iguanodontia. Their cladogram is reproduced below:

See also

Notes and References

  1. Madzia. Daniel. Boyd. Clint A.. Mazuch. Martin. A basal ornithopod dinosaur from the Cenomanian of the Czech Republic. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 16. 11. 2017. 967–979. 10.1080/14772019.2017.1371258 . 90008574.
  2. First Cenomanian dinosaur from Central Europe (Czech Republic) . Acta Palaeontologica Polonica . 50 . 2 . Fejfar . O. . Košťák . M. . Kvaček . J. . Mazuch . M. . Moučka . M. . 295–300 . 2005 . en.