| Crichtonsaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian–Turonian |
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|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Ankylosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Ankylosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Crichtonsaurus Dong, 2002 |
| Species | |
Crichtonsaurus is a genus of ankylosaurid ankylosaur dinosaur named for Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park. It was an ankylosaurine, 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][2]
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 Michael Crichton and Birger Bohlin, a Swedish paleontologist.[3] Crichton was 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.