The generic name, "Huallasaurus," combines "hualla," the Mapudungun word for "duck," and the Greek "sauros," meaning "lizard." The specific name, "australis," is derived from the Latin "australis," meaning "southern," after the discovery of the holotype specimen in southern Argentina.[3][1]
Rozadilla et al. (2022) named Huallasaurus and the closely related Kelumapusaura, recovering them in a clade of entirely South American saurolophines.[3] In the 2023 description of the South American hadrosauroidGonkoken, Alarcón-Muñoz et al. recovered similar results, implementing a modified version of the phylogenetic matrix of Rozadilla et al. They named the clade containing Huallasaurus, Kelumapusaura, and other South American saurolophines as the Austrokritosauria, recovering it as the sister taxon to the Kritosaurini. The results of their phylogenetic analyses of Saurolophinae are displayed in the cladogram below:[4]
^ abBonaparte, José; Franchi, M.R.; Powell, J.E.; Sepulveda, E. (1984). "La Formación Los Alamitos (Campaniano-Maastrichtiano) del sudeste de Rio Negro, con descripcion de Kritosaurus australis n. sp. (Hadrosauridae). Significado paleogeografico de los vertebrados". Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina (in Spanish). 39 (3–4): 284–299.
^Prieto–Marquez, Alberto; Salinas, Guillermo C. (2010). "A re–evaluation of Secernosaurus koerneri and Kritosaurus australis (Dinosauria, Hadrosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (3): 813–837. Bibcode:2010JVPal..30..813P. doi:10.1080/02724631003763508. S2CID85814033.
