Ajnabia odysseus
"stranger"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Ajnabia 3.5 m (11.5 ft) long
as long as 2 people standing fingertip to fingertip
- Length
- 3.5 m (11.5 ft)
- Period
- Cretaceous (145–66 Mya)
- Place
- Africa · Europe · Morocco
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Hadrosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Cerapoda Ornithopoda Iguanodontia Duck-billed dinosaurs with tooth batteries.
Ajnabia (meaning “stranger” or “foreigner”) is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Morocco. It is the first definitive hadrosaur from Africa and is thought to be related to European hadrosaurs like Adynomosaurus and Pararhabdodon. The discovery of Ajnabia came as a surprise to the paleontologists who found it because Africa was isolated by water from the rest of the world during the Cretaceous, such that hadrosaurs were assumed to have been unable to reach the continent.
What we know
- Named by Longrich et al., 2021.
- Body length estimated at about 3.5 m.
- Fossils found in Africa and Europe.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Ajnabia — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.