Beipiaosaurus
| Beipiaosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Depiction of two Beipiaosaurus inexpectus . |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium to Aptium ) | ||||||||||||
| 130.7 to 112.9 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Beipiaosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Xu Xing , Tang Z. & Wang Xiaolin, 1999 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Beipiaosaurus ( Greek : Beipiao lizard ) is a genus of theropod dinosaurs from the Therizinosauroidea group that lived in China during the Lower Cretaceous.
The only species discovered so far was found in 1999 near the city of Beipiao in Liaoning Province in China by Xing Xu, Zhi-lu Tang and Xiao-lin Wang and was given due to the "surprising characteristics of the animal" (meaning are skin prints that indicate feathers) the name Beipiaosaurus inexpectus .
description
Beipiaosaurus reached a length of about 2.2 meters and was about 0.9 meters high. His weight was an estimated 80 kilograms and he was walking on two legs. Until the first description of the Yutyrannus in April 2012, it was the largest non-bird dinosaur in which prints of feathers were discovered. It also had a toothless beak with cheek teeth and long crescent-shaped claws on the forearms, which are typical of the Therizinosauria representatives . Most therizinosaurs have four functional toes, but the inner toes of Beipiaosaurus indicate that these dinosaurs had ancestors with three toes. The head was very large compared to other therizinosaurs, the lower jaw was more than half the length of the thigh. Skin prints of this dinosaur indicate that the body was predominantly covered in downy, fiber-like feathers, similar to those of Sinosauropteryx . These downy feathers represent an intermediate stage between Sinosauropteryx and birds , in a broader sense ( Avialae ). It is also assumed that Beipiaosaurus ate plants.
Individual evidence
- ^ Zhou Zhonghe : Evolutionary radiation of the Jehol Biota: chronological and ecological perspectives. In: Geological Journal. Vol. 41, No. 3/4, 2006, ISSN 0072-1050 , pp. 377-393, doi : 10.1002 / gj.1045 .
- ^ Zhou Zhonghe: Evolutionary radiation of the Jehol Biota: chronological and ecological perspectives. In: Geological Journal. Vol. 41, No. 3/4, 2006, pp. 377-393, doi : 10.1002 / gj.1045 .
- ↑ Xing Xu, Zhi-lu Tang, Xiao-lin Wang: A therizinosauroid dinosaur with integumentary structures from China. In: Nature . 399, No. 6734, 1999, pp. 350-354, doi : 10.1038 / 20670 .
- ↑ Beipiaosaurus ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at dinosaurier-info.de
