Levnesovia

Levnesovia was a mid-sized hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived in what is now Uzbekistan during the middle part of the Late Cretaceous. It was named in memory of the Russian palaeontologist Lev Nesov, whose fieldwork uncovered vast troves of Central Asian fossil reptiles. Although known predominantly from disarticulated skull material and individual limb bones found in the Bissekty Formation bonebeds, Levnesovia has proved enormously important for understanding hadrosaur origins. It reached an estimated five to six metres in length and was a nimble herbivore browsing on coastal plains and river margins. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that Levnesovia was very closely related to Bactrosaurus and may represent an early relative of the magnificent hollow-crested lambeosaurine duck-billed dinosaurs.

Its skull anatomy offers crucial transitional evidence linking early hadrosauroids to hollow-crested lambeosaurines.

Where and when

Levnesovia lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 92 to 89 million years ago (Turonian age). Its remains come from Uzbekistan, in the Bissekty Formation.

The numbers

Length 5.3 m (estimates run from 4.5 to 6 m). Mass about 980 kg. Hip height about 1.7 m. That is 3.1 human-lengths, or 0.47 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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