Charonosaurus (meaning Charon's lizard") is the name of a genus of dinosaurs, whose fossils were discovered by Godefroit, Zan & Jin in 2000 on the south bank of the Amur river, dividing China from Russia. Charonosaurus is a very large lambeosaurine hadrosaur (estimated around 13 m (42.5 ft) long), known from a partial skull (Holotype: CUST J-V1251-57 (Changchun University of Sciences and Technology, Changchun, Jilin Province, China) found in the Late Maastrichtian Yuliangze Formation, west of Jiayin village, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China.
Adult and juvenile hadrosaur remains discovered in the same area and formation likely represent the same taxon and supply information on most of the postcranial skeleton; the femur length was up to 1.35 m. (4.5 ft). The partial skull resembles that of Parasaurolophus and probably had a similar long, backward-projecting hollow crest, indicated by the highly modified dorsal surface of the frontal bones. Charonosaurus is one of the largest hadrosaurs currently known from Asia and indicates that the lambesaurines had survived till the very end of the Cretaceous (lambeosaurines are not known from the Late Maastrichtian in North America).
In popular culture[]
- Charonosaurus appeared in the TV documentary called Last Day of the Dinosaurs. In this documentary, it was shown with a bright red crest and green scaly skin. Its model was reused from the Clash of the Dinosaurs Parasaurolophus.
- Charonosaurus also appeared in Dinosaur King (see the image below).
- Charonosaurus also appeared in The Dino King/Speckles the Tarbosaurus, and its sequel, The Dino King: Journey to Fire Mountain/Speckles the Tarbosaurus: The New Paradise.
- It appears as an alternative species skin for the Parasaurolophus in Prehistoric Kingdom.
