Lanzhousaurus (meaning "Lanzhou lizard") is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur. Lanzhousaurus lived in the Gansu region of what is now China during the Early Cretaceous (Barremian). A partial skeleton has been recovered from the Hekou Group. It was described by You, Ji and Li in 2005 and the type and only species is Lanzhousaurus magnidens.[1] It's been estimated to be about 10 meters (33 feet) in length and 6 tonnes (6.6 short tons) in weight.[2]
| Lanzhousaurus Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous,
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| Skeletal mount of Lanzhousaurus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Neornithischia |
| Clade: | †Ornithopoda |
| Clade: | †Styracosterna |
| Genus: | †Lanzhousaurus You, Ji & Li, 2005 |
| Type species | |
| †Lanzhousaurus magnidens You, Ji & Li, 2005
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Dentition
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The genus has been described as having "astonishingly huge teeth", among the largest for any herbivorous creature ever, which indicate it was a styracosternan iguanodont. The mandible, longer than one meter, suggests a very large size for the animal. Tooth enamel of this dinosaur was growing very rapidly.[3]
Classification
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In their 2020 reassessment of the hadrosauromorph Orthomerus, Madzia, Jagt & Mulder ran phylogenetic analyses of Iguanodontia. In their analyses, Lanzhousaurus was recovered as a non-hadrosauriform styracosternan member of the Ankylopollexia, similar to the 2005 description by You, Ji & Li. The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below:[4][1]
References
edit- ^ a b You, Hailu; Ji, Qiang; Li, Daqing (2005). "Lanzhousaurus magnidens gen. et sp. nov. from Gansu Province, China: the largest-toothed herbivorous dinosaur in the world" [中国甘肃发现世界上最大牙齿的植食性恐龙：巨齿兰州龙(新属、新种)]. Geological Bulletin of China. 24 (9): 785–794. ISSN 1671-2552.
- ^ Paul, Gregory S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 319.
- ^ Celina A. Suarez, Hai-Lu You, Marina B. Suarez, Da-Qing Li & J. B. Trieschmann (2017). Stable Isotopes Reveal Rapid Enamel Elongation (Amelogenesis) Rates for the Early Cretaceous Iguanodontian Dinosaur Lanzhousaurus magnidens. Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 15319 (2017). doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15653-6
- ^ Madzia, Daniel; Jagt, John W. M.; Mulder, Eric W. A. (2020-04-01). "Osteology, phylogenetic affinities and taxonomic status of the enigmatic late Maastrichtian ornithopod taxon Orthomerus dolloi (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)". Cretaceous Research. 108: 104334. Bibcode:2020CrRes.10804334M. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104334. ISSN 0195-6671.
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