Hexinlusaurus

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Hexinlusaurus
Fossil range: Middle Jurassic

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Genus:	Hexinlusaurus Barret et al., 2005

Species

H. multidens (He & Cai, 1983 [originally Yandusaurus multidens]) (type)

Hexinlusaurus (Barrett et al., 2005) is a genus of basal ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China. The holotype (ZDM T6001, Zigong Dinosaur Museum, Dashanpu, People's Republic of China), consists of an almost complete, articulated skull and some postcranial material, collected from a terrestrial sandstone within the Lower Shaximiao Formation (?Bajocian) at the famous dinosaur-bearing quarries at Dashanpu. A paratype (ZDM T6002) consists of a partial skull and postcranial remains. Previously, it had been described as a species of Yandusaurus, Y. multidens (He and Cai, 1983), but was reclassified as a new taxon by Barrett et al. in 2005, who diagnosed this anatomically conservative species as follows: "A small ornithischian dinosaur distinguished from all other basal ornithischians by a single autapomorphy, the presence of a marked concavity that extends over the lateral surface of the postorbital." The etymology of the genus name honors Professor He Xin-Lu (Chengdu University of Technology) + the Greek sauros (=lizard). Hexinlusaurus was a small, fleet-footed herbivore.

Other dinosaurs known from Dashanpu include the sauropod Shunosaurus, the theropod Gasosaurus, and the stegosaur Huayangosaurus.

[edit] "Proyandusaurus"

Before being officially named Hexinlusaurus, this genus was briefly known under the informal name "Proyandusaurus". This name originally appeared in an abstract attributed to Fabien Knoll, which was apparently published without his consent.[1][2]

[edit] References

Barrett, P.M., Butler, R. J., and Knoll, F. 2005. Small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic of Sichuan, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25:823-834.
Knoll, F. 1999. The family Fabrosauridae. In: J. I. Canudo and G. Cuenca-Bescós (Eds.): IV European Workshop on Vertebrate Palaeontology, Albarracin (Teruel, Spain), junio de 1999. Programme and Abstracts, Field guide. Servicio Publicaciones Universidad de Zaragoza, 54.
He, X.-L. and Cai, K.-J. 1983. A new species of Yandusaurus (hypsilophodont dinosaur) from the Middle Jurassic of Dashanpu, Zigong, Sichuan. Journal of Chengdu College of Geology, Supplement 1:5-14.