Zhanghenglong
Name:
Zhanghenglong
(Zhang Heng’s dragon).
Phonetic: Zang-heng-long.
Named By: Xing Hai, Wang Deyou, Han Fenglu,
Corwin Sullivan, Ma Qingyu, He Yiming, David Hone, Yan
Ronghao, Du Fuming & Xu Xing - 2014.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Hadrosauroidea.
Species: Z. yangchengensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Holotype roughly estimated at somewhere
between 5.5 and 6 meters long.
Known locations: China, Henan Province, Xixia
County - Majiacun Formation.
Time period: Santonian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains including
right maxilla (tooth bearing bone of the skull), right jugal and
right dentary (lower left jaw bone). Post cranial remains
including dorsal (back) vertebrae, ribs, shoulder and ulna
(lower forearm bone) have also been attributed to the genus.
Zhanghenglong
was described at the time of its description as a non-hadrosaurid
hadrosauroid, which translated into simpler terms is a primitive
hadrosaur.
Hadrosauroids like Zhanghenglong were
descended from the
older iguanodont ornithopods that rose to prominence during late
Jurassic and early Cretaceous. By the earlier stages of the late
cretaceous that had evolved into the hadrosauroids like Zhanghenglong,
which by the later stages of the Late Cretaceous would develop into
hadrosaurids. Though not much is known, the fossils of
Zhanghenglong show that as a genus Zhanghenglong
would have still been
transitional in form between hadrosauroids and hadrosaurids, with a
couple of known hadrosaurid features, though still not enough to see
it classified as a hadrosaurid.
Zhanghenglong
was named after the Chinese scientist Zhang Heng who lived in China
during the first century. The ‘long' part of the name is the
Mandarin word for ‘dragon'. Other dinosaurs that Zhanghenglong
may have encountered include the troodontid
Xixiasaurus
and the
alvarezsaur
Xixianykus.
Further reading
- A New Basal Hadrosauroid Dinosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda)
with Transitional Features from the Late Cretaceous of Henan
Province, China. - PLoS ONE 9 (6): e98821 - Xing
Hai, Wang Deyou, Han Fenglu, Corwin Sullivan, Ma Qingyu, He
Yiming, David Hone, Yan Ronghao, Du Fuming & Xu Xing
- 2014.
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