Yixianosaurus

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Yixianosaurus
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
(unranked) Maniraptora
Genus: Yixianosaurus
Species: Y. longimanus
Binomial name
Yixianosaurus longimanus
Xu & Wang, 2003

Yixianosaurus ("Yixian lizard") was a maniraptoran dinosaur genus from the Early Cretaceous (middle Barremian stage, 125 million years ago) of China. It is known only from a pair of fossilized arms complete with fossilized feathers. Its exact placement within maniraptora is uncertain, though its hands resemble those of another feathered dinosaur, Epidendrosaurus [1].

The type species, Yixianosaurus longimanus, was formally described by Xu X. & Wang Xiao-lin in 2003. The partial skeleton was recovered in Liaoning, in northeastern China.

[edit] References

Xu X. & Wang Xiao-lin. 2003. A new maniraptoran from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of western Liaoning. _Vertebrata PalAsiatica_ 41(3): 195-202.