Rhadinosaurus

Rhadinosaurus (meaning "slender lizard") is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaur first described in 1881 by Harry Govier Seeley, based on remains uncovered in Austria sometime between 1859 and 1870 by Edward Suess and Pawlowitsch.^[1] It was a herbivore that lived around 84.9 to 70.6 million years ago (during the Late Cretaceous period).^[2] The type species is R. alcimus.

Rhadinosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 84.9–70.6 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	†Ornithischia
Clade:	†Thyreophora
Clade:	†Ankylosauria
Clade:	†Euankylosauria
Family:	†Nodosauridae
Genus:	†Rhadinosaurus Seeley, 1881
Species:	†R. alcimus
Binomial name
†Rhadinosaurus alcimus Seeley, 1881

Fossils

The Rhadinosaurus hypodigm (holotype) consists of one tibia fragment, one limb fragment, two fibulae, and two dorsal vertebrae. The fibulae (PIUW 2349/34), which are clearly ankylosaurian, were originally identified as femora in the original description, but were eventually re-identified in a 2001 review of ankylosaur specimens from the Grünbach Formation.^[3] Sachs and Hornung (2006) re-identified one of the putative humeral bones (PIUW 2348/35) as a tibial fragment of an rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaur, referring it to Zalmoxes sp.^[4]

Taxonomy

Rhadinosaurus was initially classified as a dinosaur of uncertain position, and later considered an ornithosuchid as well as possible synonym of Doratodon, until Franz Nopcsa introduced the now popular theory that classifies it as a probable synonym of Struthiosaurus.^{[3][5][6][7][8]}