Paludohadros

MEANING: Swamp hadrosauroid

PERIOD: Early Cretaceous

CONTINENT: Europe

Paludohadros is a hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now England.

Abstract from paper: A new genus and species of an early-diverging hadrosauroid dinosaur, Paludohadros proudlovii gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Lower Cretaceous Weald Clay Formation of Smokejacks Brickworks, southern England. This new taxon can be diagnosed by the following autapomorphies and combination of characters: dentary teeth with two secondary ridges and a variable number of accessory ridges on the lingual surface of the crown; surangular with a dorsally projecting lateral process that is offset laterally from the dorsal surface of the anterior process; humerus with a proximally extending ridge on the anteromedial surface of the distal condyle; ischium with a posteroventrally curved shaft, a well-developed ischial boot and an obliquely oriented crest dorsal to the obturator process on the lateral surface of the shaft and a tibia with bosses on the medial and lateral surfaces near the proximal end. Although iguanodontians from the Weald Sub-basin have long been known from older Valanginian strata, represented by Barilium dawsoni, Hypselospinus fittoni and Kukufeldia tilgatensis, the description of Paludohadros proudlovii from the Barremian represents an increase in this diversity of iguanodontians from the Wealden Group, and it is the only valid iguanodontian taxon from the Barremian Weald Clay Formation reported so far. Although broadly contemporaneous, the iguanodontians of the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight are different taxa, raising the possibility that the Wessex and Weald Clay formations were deposited at slightly different times.

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Paludohadros is from the Early Cretaceous. The Cretaceous is the third and final geological period of the Mesozoic Era, with the Early Cretaceous making up roughly the first half, lasting from about 143 to 100 million years ago. The poles were ice-free, due to the relatively warm climate, and forests extended into high latitudes. The continued breakup of the continents created new coastlines and isolated landmasses, influencing the evolution of distinct dinosaur faunas.

It was a time of transition, as many groups of animals and plants began to take on more modern forms while others declined or disappeared. Pterosaurs continued to thrive, though early birds were becoming more diverse and widespread. Mammals remained small but adapted to a variety of ecological niches. In the oceans, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were common, and early mosasaurs began to appear.

Dinosaurs remained the dominant land animals, with groups like iguanodontians, spinosaurids, and carcharodontosaurids rising to prominence. While sauropods declined in some regions, they remained abundant in the Southern Hemisphere. The first true ceratopsians appeared, and ankylosaurs replaced stegosaurs in their niche. Dromaeosaurs and other small theropods diversified. During this time, the first flowering plants evolved, gradually changing global ecosystems by providing new food sources for herbivores.

Paludohadros is an iguanodontian. Iguanodontia was an important branch of the ornithopoda, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs that would become one of the most successful clades of the Cretaceous. These dinosaurs first appeared in the Late Jurassic as small bipedal grazers, but diversified through the Early Cretaceous, gradually increasing into larger more robust forms. While the more derived hadrosaurs of the Late Cretaceous became highly specialized for chewing tough plant material, basal iguanodontians retained a mix of primitive and advanced traits. They were among the first large-bodied ornithopods to spread widely across the Northern Hemisphere, with fossils found in Europe, North Africa, and Asia.

Early iguanodontians possessed powerful hind limbs for efficient bipedal movement but could also walk on all fours when foraging. One of their most distinctive features was their unique hand structure, which included a stiff, spike-like thumb that may have been used for defense or breaking apart tough vegetation. Although they lacked the fully developed dental batteries of later hadrosaurs, their teeth were already adapted for efficient plant processing, giving them an evolutionary advantage as herbivores. These adaptations laid the groundwork for the eventual dominance of hadrosaurs, which would expand into even more diverse habitats and continue to thrive until the end of the Cretaceous.