Lanzhousaurus

Name: Lanzhousaurus.
Phonetic: Lan-zoo-sor-us.
Named By: Geological Bulletin of China‭ ‬24‭(‬9‭)‬:785-794‭ ‬-‭ ‬H.‭ ‬You,‭ ‬Q.‭ ‬Ji‭ & ‬D.‭ ‬Li‭ ‬-‭ ‬2005.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Ornithishcia,‭ ‬Ornithopoda,‭ ‬Ankylopollexia,‭ ‬Styracosterna.
Species: L.‭ ‬magnidens‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Holotype jaw reconstructed at a length of about one meter.‭ ‬Teeth measured at up to fourteen centimetres.
Known locations: China.
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial jaw and some partial post cranial remains including cervical and dorsal vertebrae,‭ ‬ribs and a partial pelvis.

       Reconstructions of Lanzhousaurus are sketchy at best,‭ ‬but with a jaw length of one meter,‭ ‬it is near certain that in life Lanzhousaurus would have been a very large ornithopod dinosaur.‭ ‬Following this trend,‭ ‬the teeth that have been preserved in the lower jaw are also unusually large,‭ ‬and at fourteen centimetres in length each,‭ ‬are actually the largest known for any plant eating animal ever‭ (‬functional processing teeth as opposed to tusks‭)‬.‭ ‬Why did Lanzhousaurus have such large teeth‭? ‬The answer is we just don’t know yet for certain,‭ ‬though it was almost certainly for some kind of adaptation,‭ ‬specialist feeding or otherwise.

Further reading
-‭ ‬Lanzhousaurus magnidens gen.‭ ‬et sp.‭ ‬nov.‭ ‬from Gansu Province,‭ ‬China:‭ ‬the largest-toothed herbivorous dinosaur in the world.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Geological Bulletin of China‭ ‬24‭(‬9‭)‬:785-794‭ ‬-‭ ‬H.‭ ‬You,‭ ‬Q.‭ ‬Ji‭ & ‬D.‭ ‬Li‭ ‬-‭ ‬2005.
- Stable Isotopes Reveal Rapid Enamel Elongation (Amelogenesis) Rates for the Early Cretaceous Iguanodontian Dinosaur Lanzhousaurus magnidens. - Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 15319 (2017). - Celina A. Suarez, Hai-Lu You, Marina B. Suarez, Da-Qing Li & J. B. Trieschmann - 2017.



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