User:Augustios Paleo/sandbox2
| Augustios Paleo/sandbox2 Temporal range: Earliest to Middle Maastrichtian,[1]
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| Holotype skull, Paleozoological Museum of China | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Cerapoda |
| Clade: | †Marginocephalia |
| Clade: | †Pachycephalosauria |
| Genus: | †Wannanosaurus Hou, 1977 |
| Species: | †W. yansiensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Wannanosaurus yansiensis Hou, 1977
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Wannanosaurus (meaning "Wannan lizard", named after the location where it was discovered) is a genus of basal pachycephalosaurian dinosaur from the Maastrichtian Upper Cretaceous Xiaoyan Formation, about 70 million years ago (mya) in what is now Anhui, China. The type species, Wannanosaurus yansiensis, was described by Hou Lian-Hai in 1977.[2]
Discovery and naming[edit]
During a 1970 expedition to Yansi, Anhui, China, members of the Anwei Provincial Survey, a body of the larger Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, unearthed two partial skeletons of a pachycephalosaurian dinosaur. These fossils derive from the Upper Cretaceous-aged red sandstones of the upper member of the Xiaoyan Formation, which dates to the Campanian (83.6-72.1 mya) or early Maastrichtian (72-66 mya) stages. The more complete of the two, later designated the holotype, includes an incomplete skull, which bore parts of the dome, left mandible, a cervical vertebra, partial ilium, both femora, and the right tibia. In the initial description of Wannanosaurus, a partial ilium was also noted to be found but it has since been lost. The more fragmentary individual, later the paratype, consists of a caudal vertebra, an ilium fragment, both femora, left tibia, and left fibula, though some other reported remains have been lost as well.
It is known from a single partial skeleton, including a partial skull roof and lower jaw, a femur and tibia, part of a rib, and other fragments. Because it has a flat skull roof with large openings, it has been considered primitive among pachycephalosaurs.[2][3] Sometimes it has been classified as a member of the now-deprecated family Homalocephalidae,[4][5] now thought to be an unnatural assembly of pachycephalosaurians without domed skulls.[3] Although its remains are from a very small individual, with a femur length of ~8 centimeters (3.1 in) and an estimated overall length of about 60 cm (2 ft),[2][6] the fused bones in its skull suggest that it was an adult at death.[7] Like other pachycephalosaurians, it was probably herbivorous or omnivorous, feeding close to the ground on a variety of plant matter, and possibly insects as well.[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Li, G.; Hirano, H.; Batten, D.J.; Wan, X.; Willems, H.; Zhang, X. (2010). "Biostratigraphic significance of spinicaudatans from the Upper Cretaceous Nanxiong Group in Guangdong, South China". Cretaceous Research. 31 (4): 387–395. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.05.003.
- ^ a b c Hou Lian-Hai (1977). "A new primitive Pachycephalosauria from Anhui, China.It is the second smallest dinosaur in world after microceratops" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 15 (3): 198–202.
- ^ a b c Maryańska, Teresa; Chapman, Ralph E.; Weishampel, David B. (2004). "Pachycephalosauria". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 464–477. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
- ^ Sues, Hans-Dieter; Galton, Peter M. (1987). "Anatomy and classification of the North American Pachycephalosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Palaeontographica Abteilung A. 198 (1–3): 1–40.
- ^ Carroll, Robert L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1822-7.
- ^ Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2011) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, Winter 2010 Appendix.
- ^ Maryańska, Teresa (1990). "Pachycephalosauria". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (1st ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 564–577. ISBN 0-520-06727-4.