Dinosaurs A to Z
Hadrosauridae

Adelolophus hutchisoni

"unknown crest"

Generic ornithopod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Adelolophus 9 m (29.5 ft) long
as long as 6 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ornithopod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Adelolophus
Length
9 m (29.5 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (78 Mya)
Place
North America · Utah, USA
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Hadrosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Cerapoda Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Duck-billed dinosaurs with tooth batteries.

Adelolophus (meaning “unknown crest”) is a genus of lambeosaurine dinosaur (a crested “duck-bill”) from Upper Cretaceous rocks in the U.S. state of Utah. The type and only known species is A. hutchisoni; the type specimen consists only of a broken . It constitutes the oldest known lambeosaur remains from North America, as well as the only known lambeosaur species from the Wahweap Formation, of which it pertains to the Upper Member. Among its relatives, it seems to be particularly similar to Parasaurolophus, rather than animals like Lambeosaurus; phylogenetic analysis confirms this, finding it in Parasaurolophini (tube-headed lambeosaurs). It would have lived in a wet environment, bordering on the sea but with a more arid season during some times of the year.

What we know

  • Named by Gates et al., 2014.
  • Fossils found in North America and Utah, USA.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Adelolophus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.