Sahaliyania is a 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 lambeosaurine

Lambeosaurinae

Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs.-Classification:Lambeosaurines have been split into Parasaurolophini and Corythosaurini . Corythosaurini and Parasaurolophini as terms entered the formal literature in Evans and Reisz's 2007 redescription of Lambeosaurus magnicristatus...

 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...

 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...

 (crested duckbilled dinosaur) 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...

 of Heilongjiang

Heilongjiang

For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...

, China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. Its remains were found in a bonebed in the Maastrichtian

Maastrichtian

The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...

-age Yuliangze Formation

Yuliangze Formation

The Yuliangze Formation is a geological formation in Heilongjiang, China whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.-Vertebrate paleofauna:...

, alongside rarer remains of the hadrosaurine

Hadrosaurinae

Saurolophinae is a subfamily of hadrosaurid dinosaurs. Members of the subfamily derive from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica, Argentina, Canada , China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, the United States and...

 hadrosaurid (flat-headed duckbill) Wulagasaurus

Wulagasaurus

Wulagasaurus is a genus of hadrosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang, China. Its remains were found in a bonebed in the latest Maastrichtian-age Yuliangze Formation, dated to 65.5 million years ago...

. Sahaliyania was named by Pascal Godefroit and colleagues in 2008. It is one of several hadrosaurids from the Amur River region named since 2000. The type

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 and only species to date is S. elunchunorum, named in honor of the Elunchun people.

Sahaliyania is based on

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 GMH W453, a partial skull. Godefroit and colleagues assigned numerous other fossils from the bonebed to their new genus, representing much of the skull, pectoral girdle, upper arm

Humerus

The humerus is a long bone in the arm or forelimb that runs from the shoulder to the elbow....

, and pelvis

Pelvis

In human anatomy, the pelvis is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the lower limbs .The pelvis includes several structures:...

. It can be distinguished

Autapomorphy

In cladistics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive anatomical feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given terminal group. That is, it is found only in one member of a clade, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to the group...

 from other hadrosaurids by a variety of anatomical details. Godefroit and colleagues performed a phylogenetic analysis

Cladistics

Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...

 that places Sahaliyania as a lambeosaurine of uncertain relationships. As a hadrosaurid, Sahaliyania would have been an herbivore

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

.