Hagryphus

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Hagryphus
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Reconstructed skeleton based on the related Anzu, Natural History Museum of Utah
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Caenagnathidae
Genus: †Hagryphus
Zanno & Sampson, 2005
Type species
†Hagryphus giganteus
Zanno & Sampson, 2005

Hagryphus (meaning "

monospecific genus of caenagnathid dinosaur from southern Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous (upper Campanian stage, 75.95 Ma) in what is now the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument.[1] The type and only species, Hagryphus giganteus, is known only from an incomplete but articulated left manus and the distal portion of the left radius.[1] It was named in 2005 by Lindsay E. Zanno and Scott D. Sampson.[1] Hagryphus has an estimated length of 2.4–3 metres (8–10 feet) and weight of 50 kilograms (110 lbs).[1][2]

Discovery

Holotype specimen on display at Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City.

To date, only a single species of Hagryphus has been named, in 2005 by

Scott Sampson, the type species Hagryphus giganteus. The generic name is derived from Egyptian Ha, the name of the god of the western desert and a Latinised Greek γρύψ (gryps) meaning 'griffin' (a mythological bird-like creature). The specific name means "gigantic" in Latin.[1]

The

Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City. It consists of an incomplete but articulated left manus and the distal portion of the left radius. The hand lacks the second claw. In the wrist both the semilunate carpal bone and the radiale are preserved. Also some fragmentary foot elements, found at the hillside near the hand, have been catalogued under the same inventory number.[1]

Description

Size comparison of Hagryphus

As the specific name indicates, Hagryphus giganteus was a particularly large oviraptorosaur, estimated by the describers to have been approximately three meters (10 ft) long, which makes it one of the largest members of the clade Oviraptorosauria (Barsbold, 1976), apart from the later described Gigantoraptor. H. giganteus was estimated to have been 30-40% larger than the next largest known North American oviraptorosaur, Chirostenotes. The hand of the holotype was about a foot long.[1] However, later estimates have been lower: Gregory S. Paul in 2010 gave a length of eight feet and a weight of fifty kilogrammes.[2]

Classification

Silhouette showing the known hand
Left hand of the reconstructed skeleton

In 2003 Zanno & Sampson reported the new find as a member of the Caenagnathidae.[3] However, in 2005 they limited the precision of the determination to a more general Oviraptorosauria. Hagryphus would then be the southernmost known oviraptorosaurian from the Americas.[1]

Other known species of North American oviraptorosaurs include Anzu wyliei, Microvenator celer, and Chirostenotes pergracilis. This group of dinosaurs is better known from the Cretaceous of Asia, where forms such as Khaan mckennai, Conchoraptor gracilis and Oviraptor philoceratops have been discovered.

Oviraptorosaurs are characterized by a shortened snout, massive endentulous jaws and extensively pneumatized skulls, often sporting elaborate crests, the function of which remains unknown. The toothless jaws have indicate to some a diet of eggs but these theropods more likely fed on plants or small vertebrates. Evidence suggests that they were feathered and some paleontologists consider them to be true birds (see the main article Oviraptorosauria
for further information).

A phylogenetic analysis conducted by Funston (2020) is reproduced below.[5]

Caenagnathidae

Microvenator celer

Gigantoraptor erlianensis

Anomalipes zhaoi

Chirostenotes pergracilis

Hagryphus giganteus

Nomingia gobiensis

Elmisaurinae

Citipes elegans

Elmisaurus rarus

Caenagnathinae

Apatoraptor pennatus

Caenagnathasia martinsoni

Epichirostenotes curriei

Anzu wyliei

Caenagnathus collinsi

oviraptorosaurs

The results of an earlier analysis by Funston & Currie (2016) are reproduced below.[6]

Caenagnathidae

Microvenator celer

unnamed

Gigantoraptor erlianensis

unnamed

Hagryphus giganteus

Epichirostenotes curriei

Anzu wyliei

Caenagnathus collinsi

Elmisaurinae

Caenagnathasia martinsoni

Chirostenotes pergracilis

Leptorhynchos elegans

Apatoraptor pennatus

Elmisaurus rarus

Paleoenvironment

Hagryphus (left foreground) and other animals by a Kaiparowits Formation swamp

The only known specimen of Hagryphus was recovered at the

Argon-argon radiometric dating indicates that the Kaiparowits Formation was deposited between 76.1 and 74.0 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period.[7][8] During the Late Cretaceous period, the site of the Kaiparowits Formation was located near the western shore of the Western Interior Seaway, a large inland sea that split North America into two landmasses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. The plateau where dinosaurs lived was an ancient floodplain dominated by large channels and abundant wetland peat swamps, ponds and lakes, and was bordered by highlands. The climate was wet and humid, and supported an abundant and diverse range of organisms.[9] This formation contains one of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous terrestrial life in the world.[10]

Hagryphus shared its

multituberculates, metatherians, and eutherians.[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0897:anotmf]2.0.co;2
    .
  2. ^ a b Paul, G.S., 2010, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press p. 150
  3. ^
    S2CID 220410105
    .
  4. PMID 21949721
    .
  5. ISSN 2292-1389
    .
  6. S2CID 131090028
    .
  7. ^ Roberts EM, Deino AL, Chan MA (2005) 40Ar/39Ar age of the Kaiparowits Formation, southern Utah, and correlation of contemporaneous Campanian strata and vertebrate faunas along the margin of the Western Interior Basin. Cretaceous Res 26: 307–318.
  8. ^ Eaton, J.G., 2002. Multituberculate mammals from the Wahweap (Campanian, Aquilan) and Kaiparowits (Campanian, Judithian) formations, within and near Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. Miscellaneous Publication 02-4, Utah Geological Survey, 66 pp.
  9. ^ Titus, Alan L. and Mark A. Loewen (editors). At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah. 2013. Indiana University Press. Hardbound: 634 pp.
  10. ^ Clinton, William. "Presidential Proclamation: Establishment of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument". September 18, 1996. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  11. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0897:ANOTMF]2.0.CO;2
    .
  12. ISBN 1-55791-634-9
    .

References

  • Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR
    . 226 (3): 685–688.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hagryphus.
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