Siluosaurus

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Siluosaurus
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Suborder:	Ornithopoda
Family:	?Hypsilophodontidae
Genus:	Siluosaurus
Species:	S. zhanggiani

Binomial name

Siluosaurus zhangqiani
Dong, 1997

Siluosaurus (meaning "Silu (Chinese for Silk Road, referring to the discovery location) lizard") was a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Barremian-Albian-age Lower Cretaceous Xinminbao Group of Gansu, China. It is based on IVPP V.11117 (1-2), two teeth. It is an obscure genus, with no papers doing more than mentioning it since it was described.

1 History
2 Paleobiology
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The teeth that would be named Siluosaurus were recovered during the 1992 Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition. One tooth was from the upper beak (premaxilla), and the other was from the cheek region of the upper jaw (maxilla). Dong Zhiming, who named the genus, suggested that it was a hypsilophodontid, and described the teeth as the smallest ornithopod teeth yet known.^[1] It was regarded without comment as a dubious name in the most recent review of basal ornithopods,^[2] a not-uncommon fate for dinosaur names based on teeth.

[edit] Paleobiology

As a hypsilophodontid or other basal ornithopod, Siluosaurus would have been a bipedal herbivore. Its size has not been estimated, but as most adult hypsilophodonts were 1-2 meters long (3.3-6.6 feet),^[2] this genus would have been of similar to smaller size, based on Dong's comments.

[edit] References

^ Zhiming, Dong (1997). "A small ornithopod from Mazongshan area, Gansu Province, China", in Dong Zhiming (ed.): Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition. Beijing: China Ocean Press, 24-26. ISBN 7-5027-4298-0.
^ ^a ^b Norman, David B.; Sues, Hans-Dieter; Witmer, Larry M.; and Coria, Rodolfo A. (2004). "Basal Ornithopoda", in Weishampel, David B.; Osmólska, Halszka; and Dodson, Peter (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press, 393-412. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.