Wuerhosaurus
| Wuerhosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Graphic representation of Wuerhosaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Valanginium to Albium ) | ||||||||||||
| 139.3 to 100.5 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Wuerhosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Dong , 1973 | ||||||||||||
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Wuerhosaurus was a genus of dinosaurs from the stegosauria group . It was characterized by the flat bone plates on the back and lived in the Lower Cretaceous in East Asia.
features
Two species of the genus Wuerhosaurus are known: W. homheni was relatively large with a length of 7 to 8 meters, while W. ordosensis was a small stegosaur with an estimated length of 4 meters. Like all representatives of this group, they carried a double row of bony plates (osteoderms) on the back and on the top of the tail. Compared to those of other stegosaurs, these plates were smaller and rounder and had an elongated back approach. The exact arrangement of the plates is not known due to the sparse finds. At the tip of its tail, Wuerhosaurus had four bony spines.
As with most stegosaurs, the forelegs were short and strong, and the hind legs were long and columnar. As a result, the head was positioned close to the ground, probably even closer than that of the other known species of stegosauria. The animal moved quadruped (on all fours) and was herbivorous. The head itself is not known.
Fossil finds
Wuerhosaurus homheni , the type species , was first described by Dong Zhiming in 1973 . He comes from the Tugulu group in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in western China and was named after the Orku district ( Chinese 乌尔禾 区 , Pinyin Wū'ěrhé Qū , belonging to the district-free city of Karamay ).
It is dated to the time between Valanginium and Albium (139 to 100 million years ago). W. ordosensis , the smaller species, also described by Dong in 1993 , was found in the Ejinhoro Formation in the Ordos Basin in Inner Mongolia . It is classified in the Barremium (130 to 126 million years). Wuerhosaurus thus lived in the Lower Cretaceous and is one of the youngest representatives of the stegosauria, which had their heyday in the Upper Jurassic .
literature
- David E. Fastovsky , David B. Weishampel: The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-81172-4 .
- 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 .
- Dong Zhiming : Dinosaurian Faunas of China. China Ocean Press et al., Beijing et al. 1992, ISBN 3-540-52084-8 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Dougal Dixon : The World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Lorenz, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7548-1730-7 , p. 272.
