Fragmentary post-cranial remains (femora, tibia, vertebrae) of ornithischian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of the Sultanate of Oman are described and referred to hadrosauroids. The specimens come from the Al-Khod Conglomerate, of latest Campanian to Maastrichtian age, in the north-eastern part of the country. Although the fragmentary condition of the fossils precludes a precise identification, various characters, including the shape of the fourth trochanter of the femur and the morphology of its distal end, support an attribution to hadrosauroids. With the possible exception of a possible phalanx from Angola, this group of ornithopod dinosaurs, which apparently originated in Laurasia, was hitherto unreported from the Afro-Arabian plate. From a paleobiogeographical point of view, the presence of hadrosauroids in Oman in all likelihood is a result of trans-Tethys dispersal from Asia or Europe, probably by way of islands in the Tethys shown on all recent paleogeographical maps of that area. Whether hadrosauroids were widespread on the Afro-Arabian landmass in the latest Cretaceous, or where restricted to the « Oman island » shown on some paleogeographical maps, remains to be determined.
Laboratoire de Géologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS (UMR 8538), Paris, France;Petroleum Development Oman, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman;Shell International Exploration and Production B.V, The Hague, the Netherlands;Petroleum Development Oman, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands;Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, Maastricht, the Netherlands;Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Amsterdam VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Recommended Citation:
Eric Buffetaut,Axel-Frans Hartman,Mohammed Al-Kindi,et al. Hadrosauroid Dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of the Sultanate of Oman[J]. PLOS ONE,2015-01-01,10(11)