Genus

Valid Extinct

Ajnabia

Longrich et al. 2021

Ajnabia is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Morocco. It is the first definitive hadrosaur from Africa and is thought to be related to European hadrosaurs like Adynomosaurus and Pararhabdodon. The discovery of Ajnabia came as a surprise to the paleontologists who found it because Africa was isolated by water from the rest of the world during the Cretaceous, such that hadrosaurs were assumed to have been unable to reach the continent.

Temporal range

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

Paleogene

Neogene

252 201 145 66 0 Ma

PBDB occurrences

Group

Dinosaures

Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial

click to enlarge

Holotype maxilla of the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid Ajnabia odysseus from the Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) of Sidi Chennane, Morocco © NickLongrich · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia

PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗

Classification

Dinosauria Unranked clade

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Ornithischia Unranked clade

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Neornithischia Unranked clade

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Pyrodontia Unranked clade

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Cerapoda Unranked clade

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Ornithopoda Suborder

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Iguanodontia Infraorder

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Euiguanodontia Unranked clade

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Dryomorpha Unranked clade

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Ankylopollexia Unranked clade

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Styracosterna Unranked clade

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Hadrosauriformes Unranked clade

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Hadrosauroidea Unranked clade

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Hadrosauridae Family

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Lambeosaurinae Subfamily

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Arenysaurini Unranked clade

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Ajnabia Genus

Fossil sites 1 geolocated sites

Distribution

Top countries

🇲🇦 Morocco

Geological formations

Couche III

Temporal distribution

Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)

Species (1)

Ajnabia odysseus 72 Ma

Bibliography

Original description

N. R. Longrich, X. Pereda Suberbiola, and R. A. Pyron, N.-E. Jalil. 2021. The first duckbill dinosaur (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) from Africa and the role of oceanic dispersal in dinosaur biogeography. Cretaceous Research 120:104678 DOI ↗

Bibliography (1)