A brand fresh genus and species of ankylosaur has been known from an articulated and partial skeleton visual display unit in 1986 in southern China.
The inventive reconstruction of Huaxiazhoulong shouwen. Record credit score: Ye Jianhao.
The newly-chanced on species changed into as soon as an early member of a family of armored dinosaurs known as Ankylosauridae.
Dubbed Huaxiazhoulong shouwen, the ragged animal changed into as soon as approximately 6 m (20 toes) in length.
“Ankylosauria is a diverse clade of quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by parasagittal rows of osteoderms on the dorsolateral surface of the body and a closely armored skull,” Yunnan College paleontologist Ziheng Zhu and colleagues wrote in their paper.
“Ankylosaurs lived from the Middle Jurassic to the pause of the Gradual Cretaceous epoch.”
“As a subgroup of Ankylosauria, ankylosaurid dinosaurs are currently only visual display unit in Asia and North The US. In Asia, they had been mainly visual display unit in Mongolia and northern China.”
The fossilized stays of an adult person of Huaxiazhoulong shouwen had been visual display unit in 1986 within the deposits of the Tangbian Formation at Longxi village, Jiangxi province, southern China.
“The deposits are a group of Gradual Cretaceous strata, represented by an intensive sequence of crimson mudstones, sandstones and conglomerates,” the researchers wrote.
“This set of strata is labeled domestically as the Tangbian Formation, which belongs to Guifeng Community.”
“It has yielded some fragments of dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs.”
The specimen dates to the Gradual Cretaceous epoch, between 84 and 72 million years within the past.
Excavated by Guangchang County Museum paleontologists, it includes an articulated and partial skeleton with out skull and mandible.
“Huaxiazhoulong shouwen is the 2d ankylosaurid species visual display unit in China’s Jiangxi province,” the scientists wrote within the paper.
“Phylogenetic analysis means that Huaxiazhoulong shouwen is a basal member of Ankylosauridae.”
“The finding of Huaxiazhoulong shouwen provides range to the Gradual Cretaceous of China, and helps elucidate the evolution of ankylosaurid dinosaurs in East Asia.”
The paper changed into as soon as published this month within the journal Historical Biology.
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Ziheng Zhu et al. A brand fresh ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Greater Cretaceous of Jiangxi Province, southern China. Historical Biology, published on-line November 8, 2024; doi: 10.1080/08912963.2024.2417208
