In Depth
Lapampasaurus is a late Cretaceous era genus of hadrosaur. Although only named from partial remains, the discovery is of yet another hadrosaur from South America. The continent of South America has long been assumed to have been isolated from North America during the Cretaceous, but the presence of hadrosaur genera such as Lapampasaurus, Secernosaurus and Willinakaqe all in the later stages of the Cretaceous in South America, may indicate that there was once a temporary land bridge between the two continents. The only other explanation would be that the ancestors of these South American hadrosaurs crossed over from Africa during the Early Cretaceous and that they arose to be similar to the hadrosaurs of the rest of the world by means of convergent evolution.
Further Reading
- Un nuevo hadros�urido (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) de la Formaci�n Allen, provincia de La Pampa, Argentina [A new hadrosaurid (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) from the Allen Formation, La Pampa province, Argentina]. Ameghiniana 49(4):552-572 - Rodolfo A. Coria, Bernardo Gonz�lez Riga & Silvio Casad�o - 2012.
