Shanxia
| Shanxia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Ankylosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Ankylosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Shanxia Barrett et al., 1998 |
| Species: | † S. tianzhenensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Shanxia tianzhenensis Barrett et al., 1998 | |
Shanxia is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived during the upper Cretaceous Period. Its fossils were recovered and named after the Shanxi Province of China, and it is known only from scrappy remains found in river deposits. Based on the relative lengths of the femur and other leg bones, it probably reached a length of around 3.6 metres (12 ft).
Barrett et al. (1998) distinguished Shanxia from other ankylosaurs in having long and flattened triangle-shaped horns that project backward from the squamosal bones on either side of the rear portion of its skull at an angle of 145 degrees. However, Sullivan (1999) considered Shanxia a nomen dubium, possibly synonymous with the related ankylosaurid Tianzhenosaurus, arguing that the unique shape of the squamosal horns could be a product of individual variation, but Upchurch and Barrett (2000) reaffirmed the validity of Shanxia. In their systematic review of ankylosaurids, Arbour and Currie (2015) treated Shanxia as a junior synonym of Saichania.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ Arbour, Victoria M.; Currie, Philip J. (2015). "Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology: 1. doi:10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985.
- Barrett, P. M., You, H., Upchurch, P. & Burton, A. C. (1998). "A new ankylosaurian dinosaur (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18 (2): 376–384. doi:10.1080/02724634.1998.10011065.
- Sullivan, R. M. (1999). "Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis, gen. et sp. nov., a new ankylosaurid dinosaur (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Kirtland Formation (Upper Campanian), San Juan Basin, New Mexico.". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19 (1): 126–139. doi:10.1080/02724634.1999.10011128.
- Upchurch, P. and Barrett, P. M. (2000). "The taxonomic status of Shanxia tianzhenensis (Ornithiscia, Ankylosauridae); a response to Sullivan (1999)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20: 216–217. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0216:TTSOST]2.0.CO;2.
External links
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