Pronunciation: SEE-dro-RESS-teez
Meaning: Cedar mountain dweller
Author/s: Gilpin et al. (2007)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Utah, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #622
Cedrorestes crichtoni
David Gilpin named Cedrorestes in 2007, and immediately drew suspicious glances from Jim Kirkland and Steve Madsen, who suspected it was the same critter as Planicoxa, which was named six years earlier. Both hail from Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation, both are styracosternans, and both are known from sparse, fragmentary fossils that suggest their owners differ in size. Although normally a bugbear of palaeontologists, meagre fossils look to be Cedrorestes' saving grace, along with the age of its bonebed which is seemingly separated from Planicoxa's by millions of years.
Apart from a single bone, no like-for-like fossils were available for direct comparison. But sometimes, one bone makes all the difference. A later study of their comparable ilia (hip bones) showed that Cedrorestes and Planicoxa were distinct after all, with the former sporting features in common with both hadrosaurids and non-hadrosaurid iguanodontians, though the study's authors reckon it's a proper hadrosaurid which would make it the first of its kind known from the early Cretaceous and thus the oldest one currently known. Planicoxa, on the other hand, is a bonafide styracosternan.
Apart from a single bone, no like-for-like fossils were available for direct comparison. But sometimes, one bone makes all the difference. A later study of their comparable ilia (hip bones) showed that Cedrorestes and Planicoxa were distinct after all, with the former sporting features in common with both hadrosaurids and non-hadrosaurid iguanodontians, though the study's authors reckon it's a proper hadrosaurid which would make it the first of its kind known from the early Cretaceous and thus the oldest one currently known. Planicoxa, on the other hand, is a bonafide styracosternan.
(Crichton's Cedar mountain dweller)
Etymology
Cedrorestes is derived from the Latin "cedrus" (cedar) and the Greek "oros" (mountain), for the Cedar Mountain Formation where it was found, and the Greek "-etes" (dweller).
The species epithet, crichtoni, honours Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park. Cedrorestes crichtoni is the fourth dinosaur to be named after Crichton, sandwiched between Crichtonsaurus bohlini (Dong, 2002) and Crichtonpelta benxiensis (Arbour and Currie, 2015), the latter of which was originally known as Crichtonsaurus benxiensis (Lü et al., 2007). But there should've been five. In early November 2000, several media outlets reported that Dong Zhiming was about to name a new dinosaur Bienosaurus crichtoni. But when the formal description appeared in 2001, the epithet had quietly changed to lufengensis. Only Dong knew why—and he took that reason to his grave.
Discovery
The remains of Cedrorestes were discovered at "Dave's Camp Site" near the top of the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Emery County, Utah, USA, by volunteers during the paleontology certification program of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, in 2001.
The holotype (DMNH 47994) is a partial skeleton including rib fragments, a sacrum, the left ilium and a portion of the right, a right thighbone, the right third metatarsal, and fragments of tendons that stiffen the tail.
