''Napaisaurus'' is a genus of

iguanodontian Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (). They represent one of the most successful groups of herbivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous. The most primitive members of the group were bipedal and relatively sm ...

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (). They represent one of the most successful groups of herbivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous. The most primitive members of the group were bipedal and relatively sm ...

dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Xinlong Formation The Xinlong Formation (sometimes called the "Napai Formation", or misspelt as "Napan Formation") is an Early Cretaceous geologic Formation (geology), formation in Guangxi, southern China.Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The type and only species is ''N. guangxiensis''.

Discovery and naming

The ''Napaisaurus''

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, FS-20-007–008, consists of a right ilium and

ischium The ischium (; : is ...

discovered in 2020. A mix of diagonstic characters observed in the material led Ji & Zhang to describe it as a new genus and species in 2022. The generic name, "''Napaisaurus''", combines a reference to the type locality in the Napai Basin with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word "saurus", meaning "lizard". 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 ...

, "''guangxiensis''", references Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region where the fossils were discovered. ''Napaisaurus'' represents the first basal iguanodontian to be named from southern China. ''Napaisaurus'' was mentioned in a review of fossil of ornithischians from Southeast Asia and southern China in 2023 by Manitkoon ''et al''. They suggested that the ''Napaisaurus'' holotype should be compared to the undescribed ischium and ilium of ''

Sirindhorna ''Sirindhorna'' is a genus of hadrosauroid ornithopod dinosaur from Early Cretaceous deposits of northeastern Thailand. Discovery and naming In 2007, the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum (FPDM) approached the Northeastern Research Institute ...

'' in future research.

References

{{Ornithischian-stub Ankylopollexia Dinosaur genera Early Cretaceous dinosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2022 Dinosaurs of China