Gigantspinosaurus

Gigantspinosaurus
	Live reconstruction of Gigantspinosaurus (middle in the foreground, left Yangchuanosaurus , in the background Mamenchisaurus and Tuojiangosaurus )
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Jurassic ( Oxfordium )
	163.5 to 157.3 million years
Locations
	China , Sichuan Province ;
Systematics
	Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia)
	Thyreophora
	Eurypoda
	Stegosauria
	Stegosauridae
	Gigantspinosaurus
Scientific name
	Gigantspinosaurus
	Ouyang , 1992
Art
	G. sichuanensis Ouyang, 1992 ;

Gigantspinosaurus is a genus of pelvic dinosaurs (Ornithischia) from the group of Stegosauria .

features

Gigantspinosaurus had the double row of bone plates (osteoderms) on the back, which is typical for all stegosauria, but these were comparatively small. Instead, he wore greatly elongated spines in the shoulder area. These spines were also present in other stegosaurs, but in this dinosaur they reached twice the length of the shoulder blade. Like all stegosaurs, Gigantspinosaurus probably moved on all fours quadruped and ate plants.

Discovery and naming

Fossil remains of this dinosaur - a specimen that was missing most of its skull, hind legs, and tail - were found in the Shaximiao Formation near Zigong in the Chinese province of Sichuan and first described in 1992 . The name means "large spines" and alludes to the elongated shoulder spines. The only known species and thus type species is G. sichuanensis . The finds are dated to an age of around 163 to 157 million years in the early Upper Jurassic ( Oxfordian ).

Gigantspinosaurus was considered a nomen nudum for a long time . In 2006, new research began which, however, highlighted the validity of this name. Investigations on this genus by Chinese researchers at the museum in Zigong are currently underway.

Systematics

Gigantspinosaurus is classified as a representative of the Stegosauria , whereby it is a primitive, if not the most basic representative of this group.

swell

^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 222, online .
↑ H. Ouyang: Discovery of Gigantspinosaurus sichanensis and its scapular spine orientation. In: Abstracts and Summaries for Youth Academic Symposium on New Discoveries and Ideas in Stratigraphic Paleontology. 1992, pp. 47-49, (In Chinese language and writing).
↑ Tracy L. Ford: Stegosaurs: Plates, splates, and spikes, part 1. In: Prehistoric Times. No. 76, 2006, pp. 20-21.
↑ Susannah CR Maidment, Guangbiao Wei: A review of the Late Jurassic stegosaurs (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the People's Republic of China. In: Geological Magazine. Vol. 143, No. 5, 2006, ISSN 0016-7568 , pp. 621-634, doi : 10.1017 / S0016756806002500 .
^ Susannah CR Maidment: Systematics and phylogeny of the Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia). In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 26, Supplement to Number 3 = Abstracts of Papers Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Canadian Museum of Nature, Marriott Ottawa Crowne Plaza Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, October 18-21, 2006 , 2006, ISSN 0272 -4634 , p. 9A.

[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. 222, online .

[2] H. Ouyang: Discovery of Gigantspinosaurus sichanensis and its scapular spine orientation. In: Abstracts and Summaries for Youth Academic Symposium on New Discoveries and Ideas in Stratigraphic Paleontology. 1992, pp. 47-49, (In Chinese language and writing).

[3] Tracy L. Ford: Stegosaurs: Plates, splates, and spikes, part 1. In: Prehistoric Times. No. 76, 2006, pp. 20-21.

[4] Susannah CR Maidment, Guangbiao Wei: A review of the Late Jurassic stegosaurs (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the People's Republic of China. In: Geological Magazine. Vol. 143, No. 5, 2006, ISSN 0016-7568 , pp. 621-634, doi : 10.1017 / S0016756806002500 .

[5] Susannah CR Maidment: Systematics and phylogeny of the Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia). In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 26, Supplement to Number 3 = Abstracts of Papers Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Canadian Museum of Nature, Marriott Ottawa Crowne Plaza Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, October 18-21, 2006 , 2006, ISSN 0272 -4634 , p. 9A.