Wannanosaurus

Wannanosaurus (meaning "Wannan lizard", named after the location where it was discovered) is a genus of basal pachycephalosaurian dinosaur from the Maastrichtian Upper Cretaceous Xiaoyan Formation, about 70 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: Earliest to Middle Maastrichtian,[1]
Holotype skull, Paleozoological Museum of China
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Cerapoda
Clade: †Marginocephalia
Suborder: †Pachycephalosauria
Genus: †Wannanosaurus
Hou, 1977
Species:
†W. yansiensis
Binomial name
†Wannanosaurus yansiensis
Hou, 1977
Life reconstruction

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] 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 (4): 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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