''Hualianceratops'' is a genus of herbivorous

ceratopsian Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Ancient Greek, Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivore, herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period (geology), Period, although anc ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

that lived about 160 million years ago in the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided ...

in what is now western

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. The single species, ''H. wucaiwanensis'' was described in 2015. Its size has been compared to that of a

spaniel A spaniel is a type of gun dog. Spaniels were especially bred to flush game out of denser brush. By the late 17th century, spaniels had been specialized into water and land breeds. The extinct English Water Spaniel was used to retrieve water ...

Discovery

In 2002, an expedition by the

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name sugg ...

and the

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

in the region of Wucaiwan in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...

discovered the skeleton of a small dinosaur. The fossil was prepared by Xiang Lishi, Yu Tao and Ding Xiaoqing. In 2015, the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specim ...

''Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis'' was named and described by Han Fenglu, Catherine A. Forster, James M. Clark, and Xu Xing. The generic name combines the Chinese ''hua'', "ornamental", and ''lian'', "face", a reference to the ornamentation of the jaw bones, with ''ceratops'', Latinised Greek for "hornface", a usual suffix in the names of ceratopsians. The specific name refers to the provenance at Wucaiwan, the "five colour bay". The species was named in the

electronic publication Electronic publishing (also referred to as publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the editi ...

'' PLoS ONE'' and the therefore mandatory ''

Life Science Identifier Life Science Identifiers are a way to name and locate pieces of information on the web. Essentially, an LSID is a unique identifier for some data, and the LSID protocol specifies a standard way to locate the data (as well as a standard way of descr ...

s'' are D96319BA-6380-47D6-9512-5BDA15221A00 for the genus and DEEB3095-CB69-47CD-91FC-2D01D9F429D5 for the species. ''Hualianceratops'' was one of eighteen dinosaur taxa from 2015 to be described in open access or free-to-read journals. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

, IVPP V18641, was found in a layer of the upper

Shishugou Formation The Shishugou Formation () is a geological formation in Xinjiang, China. Its strata date back to the Late Jurassic period. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Din ...

dating from the Oxfordian. It consists of a partial skeleton with skull and lower jaws. It mainly preserves the rear sides of the head, some sacral vertebrae, the right lower hindlimb, a left calf bone and parts of the left foot.

Description

''Hulianceratops'' is a small species, about four feet long. The skull length was estimated at twenty-five centimetres. In 2015, several distinguishing traits were established. Five of these were

autapomorphies In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to t ...

, unique derived qualities. The rear branch of the

jugal bone The jugal is a skull bone found in most reptiles, amphibians and birds. In mammals, the jugal is often called the malar or zygomatic. It is connected to the quadratojugal and maxilla, as well as other bones, which may vary by species. Ana ...

, running below the opening of the infratemporal fenestra, bears a distinctive process obliquely pointing to above and behind. The

quadrate bone The quadrate bone is a skull bone in most tetrapods, including amphibians, sauropsids (reptiles, birds), and early synapsids. In most tetrapods, the quadrate bone connects to the quadratojugal and squamosal bones in the skull, and forms upper pa ...

is robust with an expanded facet contacting the

quadratojugal bone The quadratojugal is a skull bone present in many vertebrates, including some living reptiles and amphibians. Anatomy and function In animals with a quadratojugal bone, it is typically found connected to the jugal (cheek) bone from the front and ...

. Above the facet with the quadratojugal, the front edge of the quadrate is transversely expanded. Near the lower edge of the quadrate a distinctive notch is present. The dentary bone of the lower jaw is deep and short. Additionally, a unique combination of traits was indicated, that in themselves are not unique. The outer surface of the dentary shows a strongly roughened ornamentation, unlike ''

Chaoyangsaurus ''Chaoyangsaurus'' (" Chaoyang lizard") is a marginocephalian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China. It has been dated to between 150.8 and 145.5 million years ago. ''Chaoyangsaurus'' belonged to the Ceratopsia (Greek for "horned faces"). ''Ch ...

'' and ''

Yinlong ''Yinlong'' (, meaning "hidden dragon") is a genus of basal ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period of central Asia. It was a small, primarily bipedal herbivore. Discovery and species A coalition of American and Chinese paleontolo ...

'' but similar to ''

Xuanhuaceratops ''Xuanhuaceratops'' (meaning "Xuanhua horned face") is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period. The genus was in 2006 dated to the Tithonian, 150.8-145.5 million years ago. A member of the family Chaoyangsauridae, it was one of the ear ...

''. The jugal branch below the infratemporal fenestra is transversely expanded, different from ''Yinlong'', but similar to ''Chaoyangsaurus''. The underside of the quadratojugal has grooves contacting the rear branch of the jugal, different from ''Xuanhuaceratops'' but similar to ''Chaoyangsaurus'' and ''Yinlong''. The maxilla bears at least nine teeth, the dentary at least seven.

Phylogeny

In 2015, ''Hualianceratops'' was placed in the

Chaoyangsauridae Chaoyangsauridae is a family (biology), family of ceratopsian dinosaurs. They are among the earliest known marginocephalian dinosaurs, with remains dating to about 160 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period. Members of this group had ...

. The relationships with other members of its

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

could not be resolved.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21696836 Ceratopsians Ornithischian genera Oxfordian genera Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Asia Paleontology in Xinjiang Fossil taxa described in 2015 Taxa named by Xu Xing

Discovery

Description

Phylogeny

See also

References