''Jinzhousaurus'' is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur of the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

species is ''Jinzhousaurus yangi''. The generic name refers to the town Jinzhou. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honours Yang Zhongjian as the founder of Chinese paleontology. It was first described by

Wang Xiao-lin Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) (王), a common Chinese surname * Wāng (汪), a less common Chinese surname * Titles in Chinese nobility * A title in Korean nobility * A title in Mongolian nobility Places * Wang River in Th ...

and Xu Xing in 2001.

Discovery

Its fossil, holotype IVPP V12691, was found near Baicaigou in Yixian County in the Dawangzhangzi Beds of the Yixian Formation in

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

, having an oldest determinable age of 122 million years, during the early

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

stage of the early Cretaceous Period.Zhou, Z. (2006). "Evolutionary radiation of the Jehol Biota: chronological and ecological perspectives." ''Geological Journal'', 41: 377-393. It consists of a nearly complete skeleton, compressed on a slab.

Description

''Jinzhousaurus'' has a length of about 7 metres (23 ft) and its skull is about half a metre long. Its snout was elongated with large nares and lacking an antorbital fenestra. The back of the skull was uncommonly wide with a small crest on top. The dentary of the lower jaw has at least seventeen tooth positions.

Classification

''Jinzhousaurus'' shows a mix of basal and derived features. Originally assigned to (an already understood to be

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

) Iguanodontidae, later authors have referred it to the more general

Iguanodontoidea Iguanodontidae is a family of iguanodontians belonging to Styracosterna, a derived clade within Ankylopollexia. Characterized by their elongated maxillae, they were herbivorous and typically large in size. This family exhibited locomotive dynami ...

. In 2010 a study concluded it was within this group a basal member of the more derived, Hadrosauroidea.A.T. McDonald, D. G. Wolfe, and J. I. Kirkland, 2010, "A new basal hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Turonian of New Mexico", ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 30(3): 799-812

References

External links

''Jinzhousaurus'' in The Natural History Museum's Dino Directory
Iguanodonts Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Aptian life Cretaceous China Fossils of China Yixian fauna Fossil taxa described in 2001 Taxa named by Xu Xing Ornithischian genera {{ornithopod-stub