Velafrons

Taxobox
name = "Velafrons"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous

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image_width = 250px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
familia = Hadrosauridae
subfamilia = Lambeosaurinae
genus = "Velafrons"
genus_authority = Gates "et al"., 2007
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "V. coahuilensis" Gates "et al.", 2007 (type)

"Velafrons" (meaning "sailed forehead") is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico. It is known from a mostly complete skull and partial skeleton of a juvenile individual, with a bony crest on the forehead. Its fossils were found in the late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Cerro del Pueblo Formation (about 73.5 million years old), near Rincon Colorado, Coahuila, Mexico. The type specimen is CPC-59, and the type species is "V. coahuilensis".cite journal |last=Gates |first=Terry A. |coauthors=Sampson, Scott D.; Delgado de Jesús, Carlos R.; Zanno, Lindsay E.; Eberth, David; Hernandez-Rivera, René; Aguillón Martínez, Martha C.; and Kirkland, James I. |year=2007 |title="Velafrons coahuilensis", a new lambeosaurine hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Late Campanian Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuila, Mexico |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=917–930 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27 [917:VCANLH] 2.0.CO;2 |doilabel=10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[917:VCANLH]2.0.CO;2]

"Velafrons" was most similar to young specimens of "Corythosaurus" and "Hypacrosaurus", and was found to be a corythosaurin in the phylogenetic analysis performed by Gates and colleagues in their description of the genus. The skull was large in comparison to skulls from other genera at a similar growth stage, so the crest may have been small in adults or followed a different growth pattern, or it may be that adult "Velafrons" were also larger than adults of other lambeosaurine genera. Unusually large size is also seen in the Mexican hadrosaurids "Kritosaurus" sp. and "Lambeosaurus laticaudus". As a hadrosaurid, "Velafrons" would have been an herbivore.cite book |last=Horner |first=John R. |authorlink=Jack Horner (paleontologist) |coauthors=Weishampel, David B.; and Forster, Catherine A |editor=Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.)|title=The Dinosauria |edition=2nd |year= 2004|publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-24209-2 |pages=438–463 |chapter=Hadrosauridae ]

References