#angulomastacator

By José Carlos Cortés

Etymology: Bended Chewer

First Described By: Wagner & Lehman, 2009

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Neornithischia, Cerapoda, Ornithopoda, Iguanodontia, Dryomorpha, Ankylopollexia, Styracosterna, Hadrosauriformes, Hadrosauroidea, Hadrosauromorpha, HadrosauridaeEuhadrosauria, Lambeosaurinae

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: All we know is that Angulomastacator lived in the Campanian age, so sometime between 84 and 72 million years ago (though it seems to be around 76 million years ago) 

Angulomastacator is known from the Aguja Formation of Texas 

Physical Description: Angulomastacator was a Lambeosaurine - a duck-billed dinosaur with a hollow crest connected to its nose - known from its jaws. Fascinatingly enough, its jaws were weirdly curved downwards, at a 45 degree angle - unusual for a hadrosaur, or really for any dinosaur. As such, it was probably a very highly specialized herbivore. Unfortunately, without more fossil evidence of Angulomastacator, we cannot be certain of the rest of its morphology; what shape its crest may have been, or size of its body, is uncertain. As a Lambeosaurine, it would have been a rather chunky animal, and facultatively bipedal. It probably would have been of moderate to larger size.

Diet: Angulomastacator would have eaten primarily soft plant matter such as ferns and flowers and fruit, but with its downturned jaw it’s uncertain how its diet would have differed extensively from other hadrosaurs; it’s probable that it would have fed on lower lying vegetation than other hadrosaurs, reaching down into a fern and grabbing the leaves while pulling upwards. 

By Ripley Cook

Behavior: Angulomastacator, as a hadrosaur, would have been extremely social, living in very large and complicated family groups. These groups would have cooperatively taken care of their young in large nesting sites. They probably had hollow crests, which would have made distinctive sounds; though the shape of said crest is uncertain. Finally, that crest would probably have been used in display.

Ecosystem: The Aguja Formation represented a coastal plain environment, associated with a muddy transition going from the ocean to narrow river channels. This was an environment filled with many early flowering plants as they grew along the coast. Here there were many other dinosaurs - ceratopsians such as Agujaceratops and Yehuecauhceratops, ankylosaurs like Edmontonia, the pacycephalosaur Texacephale, and another hadrosaur, Kritosaurus. There were also predators such as Saurornitholestes, and omnivores like Leptorhynchos, which would have been dangers for young Angulomastacator. In addition there were turtles and the extremely big crocodilian Deinosuchus which would have fed on adult Angulomastacator as they passed by sources of water.

Other: Angulomastactor is a rare example of a hollow-crested hadrosaur with an interesting feature that isn’t the crest!

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut 

Angulomastacator

By José Carlos Cortés on @ryuukibart

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Name: Angulomastacator daviesi

Name Meaning: Bend Chewer

First Described: 2009

Described By: Wagner & Lehman

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Neornithischia, Cerapoda, Ornithopoda, Iguanodontia, Dryomorpha, Ankylopollexia, Styracosterna, Hadrosauriformes, Hadrosauroidea, Hadrosauridae, Lambeosaurinae

Angulomastacator is a Hadrosaur from the Aguja Formation in Big Bend National Park, Texas. It lived about 76.9 million years ago, in the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous. It is known from a partial jaw that is curved downwards quite dramatically, indicating that this is a unique feature to the hadrosaurs of this particular region. It probably used its strange jaws to feed on different plant matter than was typically eaten by Hadrosaurs, or that it lived in a particularly unusual environment. It was a Lambeosaurine and probably thus had a crest, though the extensivenss of it is uncertain. 

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angulomastacator