[D] Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis [sG] [T]
Describer
Coria & Salgado, 1996
Time
Cretaceous Late Santonian
Classification
Ornithischia Ornithopoda Iguanodontia
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Rio Neuquen Formation, Provincia de Neuquen, Argentina
Info
Genus - Typespecies
Known from a complete hind leg (which shows metatarsal 1 bihand 2). New material of the little Argentine iguanodont suggests the following autapomorphies: four true sacrals; first sacral rib not coalescent with second sacral rib; long pubic peduncle of ilium; absence of anterior intercondylar groove on femur; both malleoli of the tibia approximately at the same level; metatarsal II posteriorly compressed laterally; and low ascendant process of astragalus.
New phylogenetic analysis keeps it at pretty much the same position as before: closer to the Dryosauridae - Ankylopollexia clade than to Tenontosaurus. The new material helps define better the taxon as a basal iguanodontian just beyond Tenontosaurus in the line toward the later iguanodonts and hadrosaurids.