Jeholosaurus

Name: Jeholosaurus (Jehol lizard).
Phonetic: Jeh-hoe-lo-sore-us.
Named By: Xu et al - 2000.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Cerapoda, Ornithopoda.
Species: J. shangyuanensis (type).
Type: Possibly omnivorous.
Size: Holotype 71 centimetres long, but this is of a juvenile. Adult size uncertain.
Known locations: China, Liaoning Province - Yixian Formation.
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of two juvenile/subadult individuals.

       The discovery of Jeholosaurus raised some eyebrows as even though it is an ornithiscian dinosaur with distinctively herbivorous teeth towards the back of its mouth, the frontal teeth look that those of a carnivore. This has brought forth the hypothesis that Jeholosaurus was an omnivore, either hunting smaller animals or scavenging carrion to supplement its diet of plants. The only other possibility is that Jeholosaurus specialised in eating plants that required a special carnivore like dentition.

Further reading
- A primitive ornithopod from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning. - Vertebrata PalAsiatica 38(4):318-325. - X. Xu, X.-L. Wang & H.-L. You - 2000.
- Postcranial anatomy of Jeholosaurus shangyuanensis (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (6): 1370–1395. - Feng-Lu Han, Paul M. Barrett, Richard J. Butler & Xing Xu - 2012.

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