| Wannanosaurus Temporal range: Earliest to Middle Maastrichtian, [1] | |
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| Holotype skull, Paleozoological Museum of China | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | † Ornithischia |
| Clade: | † Cerapoda |
| Clade: | † Marginocephalia |
| Clade: | † Pachycephalosauria |
| Genus: | † Wannanosaurus Hou, 1977 |
| Species: | †W. yansiensis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Wannanosaurus yansiensis Hou, 1977 | |
Wannanosaurus (meaning "Wannan lizard", named after the location where it was discovered) is a genus of basal pachycephalosaurian dinosaur from the Maastrichtian-aged (Upper Cretaceous) Xiaoyan Formation, about 70 million years ago, in what is now Anhui, China. The type species Wannanosaurus yansiensis was described by Hou Lian-Hai in 1977. [2]
Contents
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 pachycephalosaurs without domed skulls. [3] Although its remains are from a very small individual, with a femur length of approximately 8 centimetres (3.1 in) and an estimated overall length of about 60 centimetres (2.0 ft), [2] [6] the fused bones in its skull suggest that it was an adult at death. [7] Like other pachycephalosaurs, it was probably herbivorous or omnivorous, feeding close to the ground on a variety of plant matter, and possibly insects as well. [3]
