"Hironosaurus" is the informal name given to an as-yet undescribed genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 from the Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

. Found in Hirono, Fukushima

Hirono, Fukushima

is a town located in Futaba District, Fukushima, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 5,653 and a density of 96.81 persons per km². The total area is 58.39 km².-External links:*...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, it was probably a type of hadrosaur, although no subfamily identification has been made. The fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s are quite fragmentary, and consist of teeth and a vertebra, possibly from the tail

Tail

The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds...

. Since the fossils have never been fully described in a scientific paper, "Hironosaurus" is considered a nomen nudum

Nomen nudum

The phrase nomen nudum is a Latin term, meaning "naked name", used in taxonomy...

. It was first mentioned by Hisa in an obscure 1988 publication and was later (1990) brought to a wider audience by David Lambert. Dong Zhiming

Dong Zhiming

Dong Zhiming , from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, is one of China's leading paleontologists. He began working at the IVPP in 1962, learning from Yang Zhongjian who was director at the time...

, Y. Hasegawa, and Y. Azuma regarded the material as belonging to a hadrosaurid

Hadrosaurid

Hadrosaurids or duck-billed dinosaurs are members of the family Hadrosauridae, and include ornithopods such as Edmontosaurus and Parasaurolophus. They were common herbivores in the Upper Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia, Europe and North America. They are descendants of the Upper...

, but lacking any characteristics to allow more precise identification (thus indeterminate).

External links

• "Hironosaurus" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia at Dino Russ's Lair