Rhabdodon (meaning "fluted tooth") is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in Europe approximately 70-66 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous. It is similar in build to a very robust "hypsilophodont" (non-iguanodont ornithopod), though all modern phylogenetic analyses find this to be an unnatural grouping, and Rhabdodon to be a basal member of Iguanodontia.
Discovery[]
Two species of Rhabdodon are known, Rhabdodon priscus, the type species, and R. septimanicus (Buffetaut and Le Loeuff, 1991). Rhabdodon remains are currently known from southern France, although fragmentary remains from eastern Spain have been assigned to the genus. Rhabdodon was large compared to its nearest relatives, and indeed one recent paper ( Ősi et al. (2012)) determined it is larger than the basal rhabdodontid status; from this they suggested that it actually experienced gigantism on the "mainland"; and not insular dwarfism as previous suggested.
Classification[]
The cladogram below is based on the analysis of Ösi et al. (2012):
| Ornithopoda |
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Paleobiology[]
Rhabdodon was probably an important herbivore in Cretaceous Europe. Rhabdodon's predators include the abelisaurid Arcovenator, and young may have been prey for Pyroraptor.