Crichtonsaurus

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Crichtonsaurus Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Ornithischia Suborder: Thyreophora Infraorder: Ankylosauria Genus: Crichtonsaurus Dong, 2002
Species
C. bohlini Dong, 2002 (type) C. benxiensis Lü et al., 2007

Crichtonsaurus is a genus of dinosaur named for Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park. It was a thyreophoran, specifically an ankylosaur, and it lived during the late Cretaceous Period. Its fossils were discovered in China, and it was formally described by Dong Zhiming in 2002. The type species is Crichtonsaurus bohlini. A second species, C. benxiensis, was named in 2007 by Lü Junchang and colleagues in 2007 for a skull and partial skeleton from rocks of the early Late Cretaceous-age (Cenomanian-Turonian) Sunjiawan Formation of Beipiao, Liaoning.^[1]

[edit] Name

Scientists at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences named the new ankylosaur species Crichtonsaurus bohlini in honor of Crichton and Birger Bohlin, a Swedish paleontologist. Crichton is a bestselling author whose titles include Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, and many others. As well as his work on dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, Bohlin was part of the group that established the existence of Peking Man.

[edit] References

• http://dml.cmnh.org/2002Nov/msg00398.html