Pronunciation: HAD-row-SOR-us
Meaning: Heavy lizard
Author/s: Leidy (1858)
Synonyms: See below
First Discovery: New Jersey, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #17
Hadrosaurus foulkii
Discovered by William Estaugh Hopkins whilst digging a marl pit in 1838, Hadrosaurus blazed a trail on several fronts: it was the first North American duck-billed dinosaur ever discovered and became the first dinosaur skeleton to be mounted for display in 1868. Granted, it was assembled in Joseph Leidy's kangaroo-like pose, resting on its "back extremities and tail", and its head was replaced with a guesswork plaster cast by English sculptor and naturalist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. But its limb proportions proved that not all dinosaurs walked on four legs, and New Jersey was so impressed that they named it their official state dinosaur in 1991.
Hadrosaurus is the original hadrosaurine hadrosaurid: the type specimen and name-bearer of the family Hadrosauridae, and by extension the subfamily Hadrosaurinae. The thing is, to be a family yardstick, your fossils must not only sport features that unite closest relatives but also be distinctive enough to separate them from all other genera and species. In 2006, Prieto-Márquez announced that this was a test that Hadrosaurus and its meagre remains failed so miserably [ref]. Then he flip-flopped, proving in 2011 that Hadrosaurus is indeed unique [ref]. However, it's more primitive than the classic "hadrosaurines", which were later moved to the Saurolophus-anchored Saurolophinae [ref] in 2008, leaving Hadrosaurus in the unusual position of being the only recognised member of its own sub-family, Hadrosaurinae.
Hadrosaurus is the original hadrosaurine hadrosaurid: the type specimen and name-bearer of the family Hadrosauridae, and by extension the subfamily Hadrosaurinae. The thing is, to be a family yardstick, your fossils must not only sport features that unite closest relatives but also be distinctive enough to separate them from all other genera and species. In 2006, Prieto-Márquez announced that this was a test that Hadrosaurus and its meagre remains failed so miserably [ref]. Then he flip-flopped, proving in 2011 that Hadrosaurus is indeed unique [ref]. However, it's more primitive than the classic "hadrosaurines", which were later moved to the Saurolophus-anchored Saurolophinae [ref] in 2008, leaving Hadrosaurus in the unusual position of being the only recognised member of its own sub-family, Hadrosaurinae.
(Foulke's Heavy Lizard)
Etymology
Hadrosaurus is derived from the Greek "hadros" (heavy, bulky, sturdy, powerful) and "sauros" (lizard) because of its size and build; "a huge herbivorous saurian... allied to the great extinct Iguanodon".
The species epithet, foullki, is named in honour of William Parker Foulke. ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:D6FFEABE-9818-4D5E-85B2-43369FE864C5. Trachodon foulkii (Lydekker, 1888)
Hadrosaurus cavatus (Cope, 1871)
Discovery
The very first fossils of Hadrosaurus were recovered from a marl pit, hand-dug by William Estaugh Hopkins at his farm on a small tributary of the Cooper River in the Woodbury Formation of Haddonfield, New Jersey, in 1838. Rather unfairly we feel, Hopkins's neighbour, William Parker Foulke, received all of the naming glory for plucking several more remains from the same pit 20 years later. The holotype is a single specimen consisting of ANSP 10005 (an almost complete left arm and leg, a partial pelvis, a shoulder bone, and fifteeen vertebrae plus vertebral fragments), ANSP 9201, ANSP 9202, ANSP 9203 and ANSP 9204 (jaw fragments and teeth).
