Qianzhousaurus
| Qianzhousaurus | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of Qianzhousaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Maastrichtium ( Upper Cretaceous ) | ||||||||||||
| 72 to 66 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Qianzhousaurus | ||||||||||||
| Lü Junchang et al. , 2014 | ||||||||||||
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Qianzhousaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Tyrannosauridae family thatlivedin what is now China about 72 to 66 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous Period . The type species and only species in the genus is Qianzhousaurus sinensis .
The snout of Qianzhousaurus is significantly longer than that of other known tyrannosauroids , which earned the genus the nickname "Pinoccio Rex".
etymology
The generic name is derived from "Qianzhou", an old name for Ganzhou , the place where the fossils were found . " Sauros " means "lizard". The species name sinensis ("China") also refers to the place where it was found in China .
discovery
The bones of the holotype specimen ( GM F10004 ) of Qianzhousaurus were discovered by workers at a construction site near the city of Ganzhou and then taken to a local museum. Examination of the rock that envelops the fossil reveals that it likely came from the Nanxiong Formation, which is dated to the end of the Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) 72 to 66 million years ago.
features
It is believed that Qianzhousaurus was about 9 meters long during its lifetime. Its distinctive snout was 35% longer compared to other tyrannosaurids of its size such as Albertosaurus . This suggests a close relationship with Alioramus from Mongolia , as the skull of this genus was also lighter than that of other family members.
Systematics
The discovery of Qianzhousaurus led to the naming of a new branch of the tyrannosaur family consisting of Q. sinensis , Alioramus remotus, and A. altai . This clade, called Alioramini, had an uncertain placement relative to other members of the Tyrannosauridae according to the initial analysis. The primary phylogenetic analysis showed that the Alioramini are closer to Tyrannosaurus than Albertosaurus and are therefore a member of the group Tyrannosaurinae. However, a second analysis found that they were outside the clade, including Albertosaurinae and Tyrannosaurinae, and were therefore considered to be sister groups of the Tyrannosauridae. Below is the authors' first analysis:
| Tyrannosauridae |
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Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e J. Lü, L. Yi u. a .: A new clade of Asian late Cretaceous long-snouted tyrannosaurids. In: Nature Communications . Volume 5, May 2014, p. 3788, doi : 10.1038 / ncomms4788 , PMID 24807588 .
- ↑ a b c New Tyrannosaur named 'Pinocchio'. In: bbc.com. April 15, 2014, accessed April 20, 2019 .