Gongbusaurus

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Gongbusaurus
Fossil range: Late Jurassic
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: unknown
Genus: Gongbusaurus
Dong, Zhou, and Zhang, 1983
Species

Gongbusaurus (meaning "Yu Gong (of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum)'s lizard") is a genus of ornithischian (an ornithopod?) dinosaur that lived between about 160 and 155 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic period. A small herbivore, it is very poorly known. Two species have been assigned to it, but as the original name is based on teeth, there is no concrete evidence to connect the two species. Its fossils have been found in China.

Contents

[edit] Description

Gongbusaurus, by extrapolation from the remains of possible species "G." wucaiwanensis and other basal ornithopods, was a herbivorous bipedal animal around 1.3 to 1.5 meters long (4.3 to 4.9 ft). It would have been a strong runner.[1]

[edit] Classification

Dong Zhiming, Zhou Shiwu, and Zhang Zicheng, who originally described the type species G. shiyii, thought it was most similar to Fabrosaurus and assigned it to the nebulous Fabrosauridae.[2] Upon description of the second species "G." wucaiwanensis several years later, Dong elected to assign it to Hypsilophodontidae, an equally-nebulous family of somewhat more derived small bipedal ornithischians,[1] while at about the same time, David B. Weishampel and Larry Witmer found Gongbusaurus to be an indeterminate basal ornithischian.[3] The most recent reviews also found the genus to be a dubious ornithischian,[4] and recommended renaming the better-known second species.[5] Peter Galton has noted that the teeth on which Gongbusaurus is based resemble those of Sarcolestes and Gastonia, so the genus may actually be an ankylosaurian.[6]

[edit] History

Dong and his coauthors established Gongbusaurus on two teeth IVPP V9069: one from the beak, and one from the cheek. These remains came from the Oxfordian-age Upper Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan, China.[2] Dong added a second species, "G." wucaiwanensis, in 1989 for a fragmentary skeleton (IVPP 8302) including a partial lower jaw, three tail vertebrae, and a partial forelimb, and added another specimen (IVPP 8303) consisting of two hip vertebrae, eight tail vertebrae, and two complete hind limbs. These remains came from the roughly contemporanous Shishugou Formation of Wucaiwan, Xinjiang.[1]

Tooth species are not well-regarded in dinosaur paleontology, because dinosaur teeth are generally not distinctive enough to hold a name. Therefore, it is unsurprising that other paleontologists have suggested removing "G." wucaiwanensis.[5] A possible replacement name, "Eugongbusaurus",[7] has accidentally gotten to the public, but remains informal.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Dong Zhiming (1989). "On a small ornithopod (Gongbusaurus wucaiwanensis sp. nov.) from Kelamaili, Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica 27 (2): 140–146. 
  2. ^ a b Dong Zhiming; Zhou Shiwu; and Zhang Zicheng (1983). "Dinosaurs from the Jurassic of Sichuan" (in Chinese). Palaeontologica Sinica, New Series C 162 (23): 1–145. 
  3. ^ Weishampel, David B.; and Witmer, Lawrence M. (1990). "Lesothosaurus, Pisanosaurus, and Technosaurus", in Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 1st, Berkeley: University of California Press, 416-425. ISBN 0-520-06727-4. 
  4. ^ Norman, David B.; Witmer, Larry M.; and Weishampel, David B. (2004). "Basal Ornithischia", in Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press, 325-334. ISBN 0-520-24209-2. 
  5. ^ a b Norman, David B.; Sues, Hans-Dieter; Witmer, Larry M.; and Coria, Rodolfo A. (2004). "Basal Ornithopoda", in Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press, 393–412. ISBN 0-520-24209-2. 
  6. ^ Galton, Peter M. (2006). "Teeth of ornithischian dinosaurs (mostly Ornithopoda) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of the western United States", in Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.): Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 17-47. ISBN ISBN 0-253-34817-X. 
  7. ^ Knoll, Fabien (1999). "The family Fabrosauridae", IV European Workshop on Vertebrate Palaeontology, Albarracin (Teruel, Spain), junio de 1999. Programme and Abstracts, Field guide. Servicio Publicaciones Universidad de Zaragoza, 54. 

[edit] External links

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