New ornithopod from the Early Cretaceous of Patagonia - Emiliasaura alessandri

[VD231991]

An interesting ornithischian-related paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667124002003 (pay-walled)

Emiliasaura alessandri is significant as not just the first ornithischian to be described from the Valanginian of South American but also the oldest member of Rhabdodontomorpha yet described because until now the fossil record of rhabdodontomorphs from the Berriasian to Valanginian has been very sparse.

[CarnotaurusKing]

Silly me for thinking this creature was named after the Argentine pop-star.

Very few Valanginian dinosaurs, and very cool that there is now a rhabdodontomorph from South America. Not a whole lot of ornithopods from there, but there is a decent taxonomic diversity of the ones we have (elasmaria, basal hadrosauroidea, hadrosauridae, the iguanodontian ichnotaxon).

[Halichoeres]

Silly me for thinking this creature was named after the Argentine pop-star.

Hey, could be both, but they definitely chose the more directly relevant Emilia for the official etymology.

[CarnotaurusKing]

@Halichoeres it's certainly possible. Definitely more fitting for the person from the area who opened a major museum there. Though it would be neat if she had one officially named after her. Mark Knopfler and Greg Graffin have dinosaurs named after them. A very rock-heavy selection, but there is a non-zero chance of an Emilia stan working in academia, so who knows?