Tugulusaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | † Alvarezsauria |
Superfamily: | † Alvarezsauroidea |
Genus: | † Tugulusaurus Dong, 1973 |
Species: | †T. faciles |
Binomial name | |
†Tugulusaurus faciles Dong, 1973 | |
Tugulusaurus (meaning "Tugulu lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur that belongs to the Alvarezsauroidea. It is known from the Early Cretaceous Tugulu Group in the Urhe area of the People's Republic of China. It was one of the first members of Alvarezsauria ever discovered.
From 1964 dinosaur fossils were excavated in the Junggar Basin of Xinjiang. In 1973 a number of these were described by paleontologist Dong Zhiming, among them the bones of a small theropod which he named Tugulusaurus faciles. The generic name refers to the Tugulu Group. The specific name is derived from Latin facilis, here with the meaning of "easily moving", referring to the agility of the animal as indicated by its "delicate bones". [1]
The holotype, IVPP V4025, was found in layers of the Lianmuqin Formation dating from the Barremian–Albian. It consists of a partial skeleton including four partial tail vertebrae, much of the left leg and part of the right, the first fingers of both hands, and a rib. The femur has a length of about 215 millimetres (8.5 in). The left first metacarpal is very short: 26 millimetres (1.0 in). The skeleton represents the only remains of the species that have ever been discovered. [2]
Tugulusaurus was originally classified by Dong in 1973 as a member of the Ornithomimidae, within the Coelurosauria. [3] In the years that followed, the genus was often considered a nomen dubium . [4] However, in 2005 Oliver Rauhut and Xu Xing concluded that it is a valid genus of basal coelurosaurian of unknown affinities. [2] In their cladistic analysis of the newly described taxa Bannykus and Xiyunykus , Xu et al. (2018) recovered Tugulusaurus as a member of Alvarezsauria. [5]
Tarbosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that flourished in Asia about 70 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous Period, considered to contain a single known species, Tarbosaurus bataar. Fossils have been recovered in Mongolia, with more fragmentary remains found further afield in parts of China.
Coelurus is a genus of coelurosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period. The name means "hollow tail", referring to its hollow tail vertebrae. Although its name is linked to one of the main divisions of theropods (Coelurosauria), it has historically been poorly understood, and sometimes confused with its better-known contemporary Ornitholestes. Like many dinosaurs studied in the early years of paleontology, it has had a confusing taxonomic history, with several species being named and later transferred to other genera or abandoned. Only one species is currently recognized as valid: the type species, C. fragilis, described by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. It is known from one partial skeleton found in the Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States. It was a small bipedal carnivore with elongate legs.
Xinjiangovenator is a genus of coelurosaurian dinosaurs, possibly part of the group Maniraptora, which lived during the Early Cretaceous period, sometime between the Valanginian and Albian stages. The remains of Xinjiangovenator were found in the Lianmuqin Formation of Wuerho, Xinjiang, China, and were first described by Dong Zhiming in 1973. The genus is based on a single specimen, an articulated partial right lower leg, containing the tibia, three pieces of the fibula, the calcaneum and the astragalus. This specimen, IVPP V4024-2, is the holotype of the genus.
Phaedrolosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur, based on a single tooth possibly from the Valanginian-Albian-age Lower Cretaceous Lianmugin Formation of Wuerho, Xinjiang, China.
Tyrannosauroidea is a superfamily of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontinent beginning in the Jurassic Period. By the end of the Cretaceous Period, tyrannosauroids were the dominant large predators in the Northern Hemisphere, culminating in the gigantic Tyrannosaurus. Fossils of tyrannosauroids have been recovered on what are now the continents of North America, Europe and Asia, with fragmentary remains possibly attributable to tyrannosaurs also known from South America and Australia.
Omeisaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period of what is now China. Its name comes from Mount Emei, where it was discovered in the lower Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan Province.
Sinosaurus is an extinct genus of theropod dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic Period. It was a bipedal carnivore approximately 5.6 metres in length. Fossils of the animal were found at the Lufeng Formation, in the Yunnan Province of China.
Chuandongocoelurus is a genus of carnivorous tetanuran theropod dinosaur from the Jurassic of China.
Szechuanosaurus is an extinct genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. Fossils referred to the genus have been found in China, Asia in the Oxfordian-?Tithonian. Its type species is largely based on several undiagnostic teeth from the Shangshaximiao Formation and it is possibly also known from the Kuangyuan Series and the Kalaza Formation, both also located in China.
Kelmayisaurus is an extinct genus of carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It was roughly 10–12 meters long and its name refers to the petroleum-producing city of Karamay in the Xinjiang province of western China near where it was found.
Dong Zhiming is a Chinese vertebrate paleontologist formerly employed at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing. He began working at the IVPP in 1962, studying under Yang Zhongjian, who was director at the time. He has described fossil remains of many dinosaurs. He investigated and described the Shaximiao Formation; an important contribution to science since they are composed of Middle Jurassic beds which do not commonly yield fossils.
The Tugulu Group is a geological Group in Xinjiang, China whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur skeletal remains and footprints are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.
Edentosuchus is a genus of protosuchian crocodylomorph. It is known from fossils found in rocks of the Early Cretaceous-age Tugulu Group from the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China. Two partial skulls and several neck vertebrae are known to date. An articulated partial postcranial skeleton may also belong to this genus, but there is no overlapping material between it and known Edentosuchus specimens. Edentosuchus was described in 1973 by Yang Zhongjian, and is based on IVPP V 3236, a partial skull and associated neck vertebrae. The type species is E. tienshanensis. A joint Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County-National Geological Museum of China expedition recovered another partial skull in 2000. Yang originally assigned it to its own family (Edentosuchidae) within Protosuchia, but later research by Diego Pol and colleagues using the new material found it to be a protosuchid.
Alvarezsauroidea is a group of small maniraptoran dinosaurs. Alvarezsauroidea, Alvarezsauridae, and Alvarezsauria are named for the historian Gregorio Álvarez, not the more familiar physicist Luis Alvarez, who proposed that the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by an impact event. The group was first formally proposed by Choiniere and colleagues in 2010, to contain the family Alvarezsauridae and non-alvarezsaurid alvarezsauroids, such as Haplocheirus, which is the basalmost of the Alvarezsauroidea. The discovery of Haplocheirus extended the stratigraphic evidence for the group Alvarezsauroidea about 63 million years further in the past. The division of Alvarezsauroidea into the Alvarezsauridae and the non-alvarezsaurid alvarezsauroids is based on differences in their morphology, especially in their hand morphology.
Zuolong is a genus of coelurosaur dinosaur which existed in what is now Wucaiwan, Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China during the Late Jurassic period. It was found in the Shishugou Formation, Xinjiang, China.
Linhenykus is an extinct genus of alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China. It is the most basal known member of the Parvicursorinae. The genus gets its name from Linhe, a city near the site where the fossil was first found and Greek nykus, "claw". The specific name is derived from Greek monos, "single", and daktylos, "finger", a reference to the fact that it is the only known non-avian dinosaur to have had but a single digit.
Aorun (pron.:"AW-roon") is an extinct genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur first discovered in 2006, with its scientific description published in 2013. It is one of the oldest known coelurosaurian dinosaurs and is estimated to have lived ~161.6 million years ago during the Late Jurassic Period. It is the fifth theropod discovered from Wucaiwan.
Fukuivenator is an extinct genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Japan.
Xiyunykus is an alvarezsaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Tugulu Group of China. It includes one species, Xiyunykus pengi.
Aratasaurus is a monotypic genus of basal coelurosaurian theropod which includes a single species, Aratasaurus museunacionali, known from fossils found in deposits of the Romualdo Formation in Brazil. Aratasaurus lived during the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous.