Protohadros

Protohadros is a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now North America.
Gary Byrd, a part-time palaeontologist, discovered some remains of this euornithopod during early 1994 at Flower Mound, Denton County, north-central Texas. He informed professional palaeontologist Yuong-Nam Lee of the find, who arranged for the entire preserved fossil to be excavated. It was first reported upon in 1996 by Jason [Head (paleontologist)|Jason Head] of the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Southern Methodist University. The type species Protohadros byrdi was described and named by Head in 1998. The genus name is derived from Greek πρῶτος, protos, "first", en ἁδρός, hadros, "thick", a reference to the fact that Head considered the species the oldest known hadrosaur. The specific name honours Byrd.
The holotype, specimen SMU 74582, of Protohadros, was found in the Woodbine Formation, which dates to the middle Cenomanian. It consists of a partial skull, pieces of ribs, a hand ungual and a neural arch. In 1997 Lee named possible tracks of Protohadros as the ichnospecies Caririchnium protohadrosaurichnos.