Lanzhousaurus Temporal range:
Lower Cretaceous,
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Skeletal mount of Lanzhousaurus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | † Ornithischia |
Clade: | † Ornithopoda |
Clade: | † Styracosterna |
Genus: | †
Lanzhousaurus You, Ji & Li, 2005 |
Type species | |
†Lanzhousaurus magnidens You, Ji & Li,
2005
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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]
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]
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]