Wannanosaurus

Wannanosaurus (meaning "Wannan 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 Hou Lian-Hai in 1977.[2]

Wannanosaurus
Temporal range: Maastrichtian,[1] early
↓
Holotype skull, Paleozoological Museum of China
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Cerapoda
Clade: †Marginocephalia
Suborder: †Pachycephalosauria
Genus: †Wannanosaurus
Hou, 1977
Species:
†W. yansiensis
Binomial name
†Wannanosaurus yansiensis
Hou, 1977

It is known from a single partial skeleton, including a partial skull roof and lower jaw, a femur and tibia, part of a rib, and other fragments. Because it has a flat skull roof with large openings, it has been considered primitive among pachycephalosaurs.[2][3] Sometimes it has been classified as a member of the now-deprecated family Homalocephalidae,[4][5] now thought to be an unnatural assembly of pachycephalosaurians without domed skulls.[3]

Restoration

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 about 60 cm (2 ft),[2][6] the fused bones in its skull suggest that it was an adult at death.[7] 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.[3]

See also

References
  1. Li, G.; Hirano, H.; Batten, D.J.; Wan, X.; Willems, H.; Zhang, X. (2010). "Biostratigraphic significance of spinicaudatans from the Upper Cretaceous Nanxiong Group in Guangdong, South China". Cretaceous Research. 31: 387–395. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.05.003.
  2. Hou Lian-Hai (1977). "A new primitive Pachycephalosauria from Anhui, China.It is the second smallest dinosaur in world after microceratops" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 15 (3): 198–202.
  3. Maryańska, Teresa; Chapman, Ralph E.; Weishampel, David B. (2004). "Pachycephalosauria". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 464–477. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
  4. 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.
  5. Carroll, Robert L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1822-7.
  6. Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2011) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, Winter 2010 Appendix.
  7. Maryańska, Teresa (1990). "Pachycephalosauria". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (1st ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 564–577. ISBN 0-520-06727-4.
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