Crichtonsaurus

Crichtonsaurus
Skeleton reconstruction of Crichtonsaurus (front) in a geological museum in Hefei (China)
Temporal occurrence
Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanium to possibly Turonium )
100.5 to 89.7 million years
Locations
China ( Liaoning )
Systematics
Dinosaur (dinosauria) Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) Thyreophora Eurypoda Ankylosaurs (ankylosauria) Crichtonsaurus
Scientific name
Crichtonsaurus
Dong , 2002
species
C. bohlini C. benxiensis

Crichtonsaurus is a genus of pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia) in the group of Ankylosauria from the Upper Cretaceous of China. Two species of this herbivorous dinosaur have been scientifically described : C. benxiensis and C. bohlini .

features

From crichtonsaurus only parts of are far lower jaw with some teeth, several bone plates and isolated parts of the postcranial skeleton known. It should have been a rather smaller ankylosaur with an estimated three meters in length. Its physique is likely to have corresponded to that of the other ankylosaurs: the sturdy trunk was supported by four short, strong limbs, the bone plates (osteoderms) formed armor that protected the body. The teeth were small and leaf-shaped and, like all ankylosaurs, adapted to a vegetable diet.

Discovery and naming

The fossil remains of Crichtonsaurus were first discovered in the Sunjiawan Formation in the Chinese province of Liaoning and first described by Dong Zhiming in 2002 . This dinosaur is named after Michael Crichton (1942–2008), author of the 1990 novel Jurassic Park , which was also made famous by the film of the same name . The type species is C. bohlini , the additional species honors the Swedish paleontologist Birger Bohlin . The finds are dated in the early Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanian or Turonian ) to an age of 100 to 90 million years. Lü et al. described the species C. benxiensis from the same formation in Liaoning Province in 2007 .

Due to the sparse finds, the systematic position of Crichtonsaurus within the Ankylosauria is difficult. Vickaryous, M. et al. (2004) list it as "Ankylosauria incertae sedis ".

literature

• Matthew K. Vickaryous, Teresa Maryańska , David B. Weishampel : Ankylosauria. 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. 363-392.

Individual proof

1. ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 230, online .
2. ↑ Fossil Works - crichtonsaurus Dong 2002 . Last accessed July 30, 2018
3. ↑ J. Lü, Q. Ji, Y. Gao and Z. Li (2007): A New Species of the Ankylosaurid Dinosaur Crichtonsaurus (Ankylosauridae: Ankylosauria) from the Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China. In: Acta Geologica Sinica 81 (6): 883 - 897. DOI: 10.1111 / j.1755-6724.2007.tb01010.x