Jinzhousaurus

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Subsectio: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: †Ornithischia
Cladus: †Genasauria
Cladus: †Neornithischia
Cladus: †Cerapoda
Cladus: †Ornithopoda
Cladus: †Iguanodontia
Cladus: †Dryomorpha
Cladus: †Ankylopollexia
Superfamilia: †Hadrosauroidea
Genus: Jinzhousaurus

Jinzhousaurus is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur of the Early Cretaceous of China. The type species is Jinzhousaurus yangi. The generic name refers to the town Jinzhou. The specific name honours Yang Zhongjian as the founder of Chinese paleontology. It was first described by Wang Xiao-lin and Xu Xing in 2001.[1]
Discovery
Skull of the holotype

Its fossil, holotype IVPP V12691, was found near Baicaigou in Yixian County in the Dawangzhangzi Beds of the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China, having an oldest determinable age of 122 million years, during the early Aptian stage of the early Cretaceous Period.[2] It consists of a nearly complete skeleton, compressed on a slab.
Description

Jinzhousaurus has a length of about 7 metres (23 ft) and its skull is about half a metre long. Its snout was elongated with large nares and lacking an antorbital fenestra. The back of the skull was uncommonly wide with a small crest on top. The dentary of the lower jaw has at least seventeen tooth positions.
Classification

Jinzhousaurus shows a mix of basal and derived features. Originally assigned to (an already understood to be paraphyletic) Iguanodontidae, later authors have referred it to the more general Iguanodontoidea. In 2010 a study concluded it was within this group a basal member of the more derived, Hadrosauroidea.[3]
References

Wang, X.-L. & Xu, X. (2001) "A new iguanodontid (Jinzhousaurus yangi gen. et sp. nov.) from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning, China." Chin. Sci. Bull., 46: 1669–1672.
Zhou, Z. (2006). "Evolutionary radiation of the Jehol Biota: chronological and ecological perspectives." Geological Journal, 41: 377-393.

A.T. McDonald, D. G. Wolfe, and J. I. Kirkland, 2010, "A new basal hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Turonian of New Mexico", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(3): 799-812

External links

Jinzhousaurus in The Natural History Museum's Dino Directory