Life restoration of Obelignathus septimanicus in the Late Cretaceous environment recorded in the ‘Grès à Reptiles’ Formation, with a pair of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs in the background. Image credit: Edyta Felcyn-Kowalska.
SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new rhabdodontid dinosaur species, Obelignathus septimanicus. Obelignathus septimanicus lived about 72 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period in what is now southern France. Rhabdodontid dinosaurs were small to medium-sized, probably bipedal herbivores that grew to between 2 and 6 m (6.6-20 feet) in length. Details can be found in a paper in the journal Scientific Reports.
These dinosaurs were characterized by a rather stocky build, with strong hind limbs, short forelimbs, a long tail and a comparatively large, triangular skull that tapers anteriorly and ends in a pointy snout.
They inhabited the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago, an extensive archipelago with numerous small and large islands situated in a shallow tropical sea.
Currently, the family comprises less than ten species, which have been found in southern France, northern Spain, eastern Austria, western Hungary and western Romania.
“Rhabdodontids are commonly considered to represent a group of small to medium-sized ornithischian dinosaurs endemic for the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago,” said Dr. Łukasz Czepiński and Dr. Daniel Madzia, both from the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
