Kerberosaurus was a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of hadrosaurine

Hadrosaurinae

Saurolophinae is a subfamily of hadrosaurid dinosaurs. Members of the subfamily derive from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica, Argentina, Canada , China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, the United States and...

 duckbill dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 from the late Maastrichtian

Maastrichtian

The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...

-age Upper Cretaceous Tsagayan Formation of Blagoveschensk, Amur Region

Amur Oblast

Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , situated about east of Moscow on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers. It shares its border with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, People's Republic of China in the south, and Zabaykalsky...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 (dated to 65.5 million years ago). It is based on bonebed material including skull

Skull

The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...

 remains indicating that it was related to Saurolophus

Saurolophus

Saurolophus is a genus of large hadrosaurine duckbill that lived about 69.5-68.5 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia; it is one of the few genera of dinosaurs known from multiple continents. It is distinguished by a spike-like crest which projects up and back...

and Prosaurolophus

Prosaurolophus

Prosaurolophus is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. It is known from the remains of at least 25 individuals belonging to two species, including skulls and skeletons, but it remains obscure...

.

History

In 1984, Yuri Bolotsky and the Amur Complex Integrated Research Institute discovered a large dinosaur bonebed at Blagoveschensk. Most of the remains were of Amurosaurus

Amurosaurus

Amurosaurus is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur found in the latest Cretaceous period of eastern Asia. Like most lambeosaurs, it would have been a primarily bipedal herbivore with a "duckbill" shaped snout and a hollow crest on top of its head, although such a crest has not been found...

(a lambeosaurine

Lambeosaurinae

Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs.-Classification:Lambeosaurines have been split into Parasaurolophini and Corythosaurini . Corythosaurini and Parasaurolophini as terms entered the formal literature in Evans and Reisz's 2007 redescription of Lambeosaurus magnicristatus...

 hadrosaur), but some came from turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s, crocodilians, theropods, nodosaurids, and a new hadrosaurine. For the hadrosaurine, cranial material (holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 AENM 1/319, braincase, plus others) was distinctive enough to permit the naming of a new genus.

Description

Diagnostic characters included narrow frontal

Frontal bone

The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull that resembles a cockleshell in form, and consists of two portions:* a vertical portion, the squama frontalis, corresponding with the region of the forehead....

s, unique form of the braincase, and a well-demarcated division between the area of bone surrounding the nostril

Nostril

A nostril is one of the two channels of the nose, from the point where they bifurcate to the external opening. In birds and mammals, they contain branched bones or cartilages called turbinates, whose function is to warm air on inhalation and remove moisture on exhalation...

s and the bone outside of it. No reconstruction of the fragmentary partial skull was offered. In their cladistic analysis

Cladistics

Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...

, the authors found Kerberosaurus to be the sister taxon to Saurolophus and Prosaurolophus.

Paleobiogeography

Bolotsky and Godefroit (2004) found the paleobiogeographic implications interesting. The relationship they described provides additional support for land links and faunal interchange between eastern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 at the end of the Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

, as the other two genera are either known only in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 or are known from a species there. The "sauroloph" group would have had to split from the nest closest group, the "edmontosaur" group, in the early Campanian

Campanian

The Campanian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch . The Campanian spans the time from 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma to 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma ...

, from Asia, and moved west while leaving a splinter population that would lead to Kerberosaurus, then return to Asia at a later point and produce Saurolophus angustirostris.

Paleobiology

As a hadrosaurid, Kerberosaurus would have been a large biped

Biped

Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs, or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning "two feet"...

al\quadruped

Quadruped

Quadrupedalism is a form of land animal locomotion using four limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a quadrupedal manner is known as a quadruped, meaning "four feet"...

al herbivore

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

, consuming plant matter with complex dental batteries.