Liaoningosaurus
Name:
Liaoningosaurus
(Liaoning lizard).
Phonetic: Le-ow-ning-o-sore-us.
Named By: Xu Xing, Wang Xiaolin & You
Hailu - 2001.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Onithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Ankylosauridae.
Species: L. paradoxus
(type).
Diet: Herbivore/omnivore?
Size: 34 centimetres long for the holotype, but
this is a juvenile. Adults would have been larger.
Known locations: China, Liaoning Province -
Yixian Formation.
Time period: Aptian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Complete skeleton preserved
on a slab.
Liaoningosaurus
is named after the Liaoning Province of China, which is where the
holotype remains were found. The species name L. paradoxus
came
about from the mix of nodosaur and ankylosaur features in the
specimen. In fact the original classification of Liaoningosaurus
was
that of a nodosaurid, but today it is actually regarded as an
ankylosaur, the underdevelopment of ankylosaur features being
explained away as still developing since the holotype is of a juvenile
dinosaur.
Not
only is Liaoningosaurus the smallest complete
ankylosaur specimen
found, it also reveals the presence of ventral plating that would
have protected the belly from attack. Such plating is virtually
unknown in other ankylosaur genera, either not being preserved or
simply not existing at all. It would be interesting to find a fully
grown and complete adult specimen to see it the ventral plating was
still there, and not just a feature of small juveniles which would
have been much easier to flip over than larger and heavier adults.
One
big problem with Liaoningosaurus is that because
the body was still
developing, it is impossible to know the precise form of the adults.
This makes it hard to establish the evolutionary relationship of
Liaoningosaurus with other ankylosaurs since we
don’t know how far
the features seen in the juvenile would develop. Thinking at the time
of writing suggests that Liaoningosaurus was a
basal ankylosaurid,
something that is supported by its appearance in the early
Cretaceous.
A 2016 study (Ji et al),
revealed that what seem to be fish remains were located within what
would have been the gut of this individual dinosaur. Further they
speculated that that Liaoningosaurus may have at least been partially
aquatic.
Further reading
- A juvenile ankylosaur from China, Xu Xing, Wang Xiaolin
& You Hailu - 2001.
- Phylogeny of the ankylosaurian dinosaurs (Ornithischia:
Thyreophora), Richard S. Thompson, Jolyon C. Parish,
Susannah C. R. Maidment and Paul M. Barrett - 2011.
- Fish-hunting ankylosaurs (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from the
Cretaceous of China. - Journal of Geology, 40(2). - Q. Ji, X. Wu, Y.
Cheng, F. Ten, X. Wang & Y. Ji - 2016.
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