Tatisaurus
| Tatisaurus | ||||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Jurassic | ||||||||||||
| 199 to 183 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tatisaurus | ||||||||||||
| Simmons , 1965 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Tatisaurus is a genus of bird pelvic dinosaur known only from sparse fossil finds.
Features and dating
So far only one lower jaw with a few worn teeth has been found. These were probably 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 1965 . The Lufeng Formation is dated in the lower Lower Jurassic to an age between 200 and 190 million years.
Systematics
The systematic classification of Tatisaurus has been controversial since its discovery . The first person to describe it, Simmons, saw it as a representative of the Hypsilophodontidae , but later investigations placed it among the Thyreophora , a group of dinosaurs characterized by their bone scales and plates, to which the Stegosauria and the Ankylosauria belong. Some researchers thought it was a close relative of Huayangosaurus or Scelidosaurus , but these views are controversial.
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.