Bienosaurus
| Bienosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Lower jaw of Bienosaurus in different views |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Jurassic | ||||||||||||
| 199 to 183 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bienosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Dong , 2001 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Bienosaurus is a little-known genus of pelvic dinosaurs of uncertain systematic position.
Features and dating
So far only one lower jaw with a few teeth has been found. These were small and leaf-shaped and designed for a plant-based diet. Otherwise nothing is known about this dinosaur.
The finds come from the Lufeng Formation in the Chinese province of Yunnan and were first described in 2001 by Dong Zhiming . The Lufeng Formation is dated in the lower Lower Jurassic to an age between 200 and 190 million years.
Systematics
The systematic classification of Bienosaurus is difficult due to the sparse findings. He is likely to belong to the Thyreophora , a group of dinosaurs characterized by their bone scales and plates, which include the stegosauria and the ankylosauria . The structure of the teeth and the lower jaw resembles that of Scelidosaurus , a primitive representative of the Thyreophora. Because of this, some researchers put Bienosaurus into a separate family (Scelidosauridae) with it.
Too little data are available for a reliable assignment, which is why Norman, Witmer and Weishampel list it as “Thyreophora incertae sedis ”.
literature
- David B. Norman , Lawrence M. Witmer , David B. Weishampel : Basal Thyreophora. In: David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 335-342, doi : 10.1525 / california / 9780520242098.003.0018 .