Wannanosaurus
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| Wannanosaurus Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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Wannanosaurus (meaning "Wannano lizard", named after the location where it was discovered) is a genus of basal pachycephalosaurian dinosaur from the Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Xiaoyan Formation, about 80 million years ago (mya) in what is now Anhui, China. The type species, Wannanosaurus yansiensis, was described by Lian-Hai Hou in 1977.[1]
It is known from a single partial skeleton, including a partial skull roof and lower jaw, an upper leg and lower leg, part of a rib, and other fragments. Because it has a flat skull roof with large openings, it has been considered primitive among pachycephalosaurs.[1][2] Sometimes it has been classified as a member of the now-deprecated family Homalocephalidae,[3][4] now thought to be an unnatural assembly of pachycephalosaurians without domed skulls.[2]
Although its remains are from a very small individual, with a femur length of ~8 centimeters (3.1 in) and an estimated overall length of less than 1 meter (3.3 ft),[1] the fused bones in its skull suggest that it was an adult at death.[5] Like other pachycephalosaurians, it was probably herbivorous or omnivorous, feeding close to the ground on a variety of plant matter, and possibly insects as well.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Hou Lian-Hai (1977). "A new primitive Pachycephalosauria from Anhui, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica 15 (3): 198–202.
- ^ a b c Maryańska, Teresa; Chapman, Ralph E.; and Weishampel, David B. (2004). "Pachycephalosauria", in Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press, 464-477. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
- ^ Sues, Hans-Dieter; Galton, Peter M. (1987). "Anatomy and classification of the North American Pachycephalosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)". Palaeontographica Abteilung A 198 (1-3): 1–40.
- ^ Carroll, Robert L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0716718227.
- ^ Maryańska, Teresa (1990). "Pachycephalosauria", in Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 1st, Berkeley: University of California Press, 564-577. ISBN 0-520-06727-4.
