Nanshiungosaurus
| Nanshiungosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Graphic representation of Nanshiungosaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Campanium ) | ||||||||||||
| 83.6 to 72 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nanshiungosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Dong , 1979 | ||||||||||||
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Nanshiungosaurus was a theropod dinosaur thatlivedin what is now Mongolia about 83 to 72 million years ago . This time corresponds to the geological levels of Campanium within the Upper Cretaceous .
description
Two different species of the genus Nanshiungosaurus are known so far . The Mongolian species Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus was estimated to be about four meters long and could reach a weight of about 700 kilograms to 1500 kilograms. The second known species comes from today's China and is called Nanshiungosaurus bohlini . Bohlini was significantly larger than brevispinus ; it could be about five to seven meters long. Its weight was about one to two tons.
Both species were characterized by a rather small head, but a considerably long neck. This was very unusual for a theropod in general , but typical of the therizinosaurs . The arms of Nanshiungosaurus were very long and equipped with pronounced claws. The dinosaur moved biped (two-legged), possibly it was also feathered .
Systematics
Originally, Nanshiungosaurus was assigned to the Titanosaurinae ( Dong , 1979), then to the Segnosauridae family ( Currie , 1992). In 1997, Dong assigned Nanshiungosaurus to its own family, the Nashiungosauridae. It is currently considered a therizinosauride (Zanno et al., 2009).
Discovery and naming
In 1979, the Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming discovered the Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus . Dong named the newly discovered dinosaur after its place of discovery in Mongolia. Nanshiungosaurus means “reptile of Nanshing” in German . In 1997 he and his colleague Hai-Lu You discovered the second known species: Nanshiungosaurus bohlini in southern China.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 160, online ( memento of the original of July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Zhiming Dong : Cretaceous dinosaurs of Hunan, China. In: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Nanjing Institute of Paleontology (Ed.): Mesozoic and Cenozoic Red Beds of South China. Selected papers from the "Cretaceous-Tertiary Workshop". Science Press, Beijing 1979, pp. 342-350.
- ^ Philip J. Currie : Saurischian dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous of Asia and North America. In: Niall J. Mateer, Pei-ji Chen (Eds.): Aspects of Nonmarine Cretaceous Geology. China Ocean Press, Beijing 1992, ISBN 7-5027-1463-4 , pp. 237-249.
- ↑ Lindsay E. Zanno, David D. Gillette, L. Barry Albright, Alan L. Titus: A new North American therizinosaurid and the role of herbivory in 'predatory' dinosaur evolution. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society. Series B: Biological Sciences. Vol. 276, No. 1672, 2009, ISSN 0950-1193 , pp. 3505-3511, doi : 10.1098 / rspb.2009.1029 .
